A Witch and a Hunter Walk Into a Bar
by DracoStarbo
Summary: Dean and Sam find themselves in San Fran with a very strange ghost and three very strange women. There's a connection between all five and it's not the supernatural world. Not wincest.
1. Chapter 1

Title: A Witch and a Hunter Walk Into a Bar

Author's Note: Okay, so recently I got into Supernatural – thank you, BlackRain88. I couldn't resist doing a Charmed crossover with it. I'm not sure precisely when this takes place in the Supernatural world, but it's sometime in the second season. For the Charmed world, it happens pretty much just after season eight. I'm unsure if Billy will be in this fic or not.

Also, I have another fanfic going and that's top priority to me. I will do my best to update this one in between writing chapters for the other, but no promises. Lastly, I'm doing this without a beta reader, so please excuse the small grammar and spelling mistakes. Let me know if I do something really stupid like write Deana instead of Dean.

**Chapter One**

As Dean loaded up on the snacks at the gas station's mart, Sam had been thumbing through his father journal, not reading it, just letting the action sooth him into a relaxed state. The brothers were going to drive all night and he'll get the morning hours, so he wanted to get as much sleep as he could before it was his turn to get behind the wheel. With all of the pictures his dad drew, it was almost like a child's book about demons, ghosts, and ancient magic.

And that's when Sam made an interesting discovery. Tucked in the back, where the leather had lifted from the cardboard, where two small pieces of paper. One was older, deeper seams. Opening it up carefully, Sam read the message:

"_Sam Winchester _has been in or apart of _an altercation _on _October 27, 1993_. Please contact…"

And groaned. The first time in school he had ever gotten into "an altercation" (and got caught). His sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Appleberry-Worthibee, had caught him kicking a bully in the shins. Of course, Mrs. Appleberry-Worthibee hadn't seen all of the things the bully did, so it was Sam who got sent home with the Fill-In-The-Blanks note. Dean had offered to forge his father's signature but Sam had wanted to be honest with the man. It had lead to an argument and Sam being grounded to his hotel bed for the rest of the night, where he couldn't see the TV.

Sam was surprised that his dad had kept the note, but figured the man stuffed it back there and forgot it all about it. Same with the other piece of paper, that was clearly younger.

"Hey!" Dean greeted as he slid into the driver's seat. Holding up the bags, he put on a big grin, "I got pie!"

Sam smiled back and pocketed his grade school note as Dean arranged the bags for easy access; this was going to be their dinner.

"Hey, Dean, check this out," he handed the piece of paper over to his brother, closed the journal, and got his chips out of the bag. "It looks like dad was working on something in San Francisco."

"Yeah, that's nice," Dean gave back the piece of paper and started off on the road.

"Did you even read it?"

"Yeah, I did. So?"

Sam stared at his brother for a second. "Dean, you're joking right? These people went missing. Dad had a good lead."

"That he didn't follow through."

"Cuz he ran out of time. But, Dean, we could–"

"No, Sammy."

"What? Why not?"

"Because it's out of our way."

"We don't have a way. We're just swinging by Bobby's while we're looking for a job."

"You want to drive all the way to San Francisco, a day's drive out of our way, to look at something that might already be gone?"

Sam raised his eyebrows, surprised that Dean was asking the question. When Dean stared back at Sam, waiting for the answer, Sam huffed. "Um, _yeah_, Dean, I do. We were looking for a job, we found one. If we get there fast enough, we might still be able to find it."

"Sam…"

"I will hitch. I will get to San Francisco myself if I have to."

Dean looked at Sam's determined face, his jaw set and his eyes staring into his brother's eyes, waiting for the dare. Dean closed his eyes in frustration.

"Fine, fine. We'll go. I swear this better not be some half-baked idea to get me into a gay pride parade." Sam rolled his eyes as Dean started down the road, taking the on rap that lead west, not east out of Nevada. "I mean, I don't have a problem with two guys hitting the sheets. Or, um, two girls, for that matter."

"Pervert," Sam muttered.

whwhwhwhwhwhw

"You've got to help me!"

"I don't know –"

"I'm Justin Messengill. I'm one of Sam Welder's chargers. He told me to find you if he couldn't make it."

Phoebe looked at the man for the first time. Before then, she had been watching him out of the corner of her eye, trying to walk very quickly to her car and get away before his desperate pleads turned angry. The man turned out to be a boy around nineteen or twenty years old. He was thin, dirty, and had panic in his blue eyes. His black hair was to his shoulders and he towered over Phoebe by six inches. If he had been clean and not crazy-sounding, Phoebe might've found him very attractive.

"All right, Justin, just calm down. Tell me what's wrong."

Justin took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair. "I was looking into some disappearances. My girlfriend's brother had suddenly gone missing, which is so not like him. He keeps his cell phone during movies just in case, ya know? Anyway, he was heading over to Gale's place but he never made it."

"Okay, how did you get involved? Why not call the police?"

"Oh, she did. But they can't do anything until he's been missing for at least twenty-four hours. I went and traced his steps and found his cell phone in an alley way. And that's – that's when it attacked me."

"When what attacked you?"

"I don't know. I honestly didn't get a good look at it. It through me against a dumpster, I called out to Sam, Sam showed up, the thing grabbed a hold of him and then they were gone."

"Gone? Gone where?"

"I don't know, just gone! I've been calling him for hours now, he hasn't answered."

"Okay, okay. Come on, Justin, get in."

"Where are we going?" Justin asked as he got into the car.

"To my sisters, they'll be able to help."

whwhwhwhwhwhw

"Do we know what this thing is?" Dean asked as Sam and he paced slowly up and down the alley way.

"No, we don't," Sam replied. "But it's something."

"Yeah? Something like what, Sammy?"

"I don't know, Dean."

"Something like a bunch of dudes go missing for separate, unrelated reasons?"

"You're starting to sound like the cop back at the station."

Dean jerked his head up at Sam with an insulted look on his face. Even still, he stood his ground and shouted over the rain, "Yeah, well, he raised a good point! Sammy, people go missing all the time. Doesn't mean everyone's connected."

"But the pattern, Dean!" Sam snapped back.

"What pattern? That every twenty years a couple of guys just _happen_ to go missing in this area?"

"In this alley way. We've investigated less," Sam reminded him.

"Not in the rain!"

Sam rolled his eyes and pretended the rain had drowned out Dean's response. The famous city of San Francisco was thought of as alive, vibrant, and colorful. But that was not the case this day. Today, the sky was filled with deep grey clouds that were pouring out buckets of water on the Winchester boys.

"It's cold! And there isn't a busty Asian in sight!" Dean went on. Sam knew that his older brother was more than capable of enduring a little discomfort, such as rain. However, Mr. Mullet Rock had decided before this job had even started that he was going to drag his heals. As tough as Dean acted – as tough as he is – the guy could really pitch a fit when he wanted to.

"Then go back to the hotel!" Sam finally snapped, turning around to face his brother. "If the job is so unimportant to you, then just go back and read your skin mags!"

Dean's eyebrows rose slightly, and for a moment, he seemed really hurt. Then, a small smile cracked on his lips. "You know I don't _read_ those."

Sam sighed heavily and rolled his eyes before turning back around.

"The EMF reader's going off like crazy," Sam said.

"No power lines close enough to do that," Dean said.

"So that narrows down our list. Now we just had to find the right ghost."

At that moment, a huge gust of wind swept down the alley way, causing trash to run and gather around their feet. Dean and Sam shielded their eyes as the rain pelted down extra sharp during that moment and Sam could feel his jacket billow like a little kid was excitedly playing an improvised game.

"I say we find the right ghost in our hotel room," Dean offered and this time, Sam didn't argue. They found all that they were going to in the alley – for now, at least.

whwhwhwhwhwhw

"So, that's the alley way?" Paige asked Justin, pointing to the way across the street.

"Yes, that's it."

"All right, thank you for your help, Justin. We'll take it from here."

"Wait, what? No! I need to find Sam."

"No, you need to stay _safe_. Whatever took Sam was obviously going for you."

"Then I'll draw it out into the open and you three can vanquish it!"

To this, Piper raised an eyebrow. "You want to draw out a creature, which we know nothing about, and _hope_ that we can vanquish it without a potion or spell?"

"Well, we can't just let it get away! It has Sam!"

"Yeah, and we'll find Sam and vanquish the creature, but first thing's first," Phoebe patted Justin on shoulder. "We need to figure out what the hell we're dealing with and you need to get inside before you catch a cold."

Justin hated to appear weak in front of the Charmed Ones, but he hadn't had time to grab a thicker jacket after he had asked Phoebe for her help. His clothes were fine in the afternoon, but the heavens had opened up that evening and were dumping buckets on everything. Needless to say, Justin felt (and probably looked) like a drowned rat.

"I'll be at Gale's. Call me the moment you guys find Sam, please?"

"We will," Paige nodded.

As Justin left, the girls crossed the street and into the alley way.

"Good kid," Piper said.

"I'm surprised he didn't fight harder to stay with us," Paige said.

"Well, he was pretty miserable looking. And you saw him go all starry-eyed on us when he realized we were the Charmed Ones and you were Sam's daughter."

"Yeah. If only that title could get me into hot clubs."

The Sisters began their quick search, using flash lights in the dim, narrow space between the buildings. None of them wanted to be out in this weather but Paige couldn't just sit at home and wait for the clouds to clear up. When Phoebe had brought Justin home, they had first tried to get all the details out of him that they possible could. Then they searched the Book of Shadows, which was pointless with the little information they had to go on. Piper and Phoebe were ready to call it a night and start fresh in the morning, but Paige was too worried to give up just yet.

"Paige? Paige!" Phoebe grabbed her sister's arm to gain her attention. "Come on, Paige, it's getting really dark and we're not finding anything. Let's just go back home for tonight. We'll keep searching the Book and scrying."

Paige sighed heavily but nodded.

"Don't worry, we'll find Sam."

At that point, Paige's flash light found a scrap of paper plastered to the side of a trash can. It was odd how it was holding onto the side of the metal, but Paige figured the rain was acting like glue in this case. She slowly peeled it off and read the only readable part of the palm-sized, tattered paper that hadn't been washed away from the rain:

_Sam W…_

"It must be my father's," Paige said as she carefully protected it from the rain. "He must've dropped it during the attack."

"Let's hope it wasn't anything too important," Piper said before they orbed home and out of the rain.

whwhwhwhwhwhw

The new day brought the sun out over a clear sky. The rain had finished itself off around two in the morning and the remaining clouds had been swiftly blown away soon after, leaving only the puddles and wet umbrellas as testament to last night's storm.

Paige had stayed up the entire night, trying to get a fix on Sam. Piper and Phoebe went to bed around one in the morning, after getting a promise from their youngest sister that she'd go to bed soon as well.

"Paige," Piper moaned as she stepped into the attic, quickly followed by Phoebe. Both of them were in their sweats and not looking rested. Phoebe had decided to stay the night and called up Coop to let him know. This had actually gotten the cupid involved but there was little that he could do. "Honey, I thought you were going to go to sleep."

"How well did you sleep?" Paige snot back.

Piper shrugged and dropped the matter when Paige took out the scrap of paper from her pocket. She held it and the scrying crystal in her hand and started scrying again. "Honey, how long have you been doing that?"

"About an hour, but I wasn't using the paper I found yesterday."

"You think that'll help? It's not like it's something important to him or anything."

"It might be, you never know. Maybe it was a personal letter or something."

The scrying crystal suddenly stopped swinging and hit its mark on the map.

"That's the alley we were in yesterday," Phoebe noted.

"Maybe he got away from whatever attack him. Come on!" Paige grabbed her sister's arms and orbed them to the alley way without a second thought.

whwhwhwhwhwhw

Sam went up and down the alley way, hoping that something would show itself in the early morning light. Dean had been asleep when he stepped out and while Sam knew it wasn't the best thing to do, he couldn't help it. They had an amazingly short deadline and very little facts to go on. Their research showed that a lot of people died in and around that alley way and they had still been sifting through the deaths when they drifted off to sleep.

The early morning was so peaceful and quiet, that Sam hadn't noticed the ghost he was looking for until it was too late.

Sam was suddenly grabbed from behind and flung into a dumpster. The wind knocked out of him, Sam slid down the dumpster, gasping for breath. The ghost, an ugly son of a bitch with a bad comb cover, jumped on top of Sam and put shoved his hand into Sam's gut.

Sam screamed as white hot pain laced through him. The ghost chortled evilly; grabbing hold of Sam's other shoulder to stop him from jerking around too much.

Then, suddenly, the ghost exploded into thousands of pieces and disappeared.

"Are you all right?" a woman asked.

Although the ghost was gone, Sam still felt the pain like it had never left. He took in a shaky breath to reassure the three women now kneeling around him that he was fine, but all that came out was a tiny whimper.

One of the girls, a straight hair brunette, pulled up Sam's shirt and saw a huge, purple bruise right where the ghost had stuck his hand in.

"Paige, heal him," the woman ordered.

Another woman, a brunette with wavy hair, put her hand on his bruise. Sam saw a glow come out of her hands and tried to pull away. However, the last girl, another brunette with less wavy hair than the other, thought he was reacting to the pain and held him against the dumpster to make sure he didn't hurt himself any more.

Paige concentrated and kept her hand on the bruise for a long minute. Finally, she took away her hand and revealed that the bruise had gone down to half its size but was still there.

"I can't get it to heal any more than that," Paige panted. She looked up at Sam and saw that his face was less contorted in pain and his breathing was less frantic.

But then he screamed like someone was plunging him into a tub of acid. The bruise came back and got a third bigger. Sam felt like someone was stabbing him with a thick, dull sword, slowly twisting it and sending electricity all through out his body.

"We need to get him to a hospitable," the second one said.

"I don't think a hospitable will help him. Come on, Paige, get us back home. We'll figure out what to do with him then."

Paige nodded and orbed her sisters and the new boy to her room. With her sister's help, they put him on her bed so he could be as comfortable as possible. As soon as they put him on the bed, he curled up on his side and whimpered against the pain that was shaking his whole body.

"…Who…" Sam licked his lips and closed his eyes. "Who are you?"

"It's okay, we're here to help," Long Hair brushed back his hair in a motherly fashion. "I'm Piper Halliwell and these are my sisters, Phoebe and Paige Matthews. What's your name?"

"S-Sam Winchester…" Sam gasped as another wave of pain threatened to make him give up the contents of his stomach.

"Okay, Sam. We're going to help you. We need to figure out what's wrong, but we're going to help, okay?"

Sam nodded and tensed up as he felt the pain grow inside of him. Piper told him to hang in there as the three left the room and headed for the attic.

"Sam Winchester," Paige muttered as she frowned.

"What?" Phoebe asked.

"Sam W. Sam Winchester, not Sam Welder. He must have been in that alley before."

"You couldn't have known. I mean, what are the chances that that paper belonged to another Sam W?"

"Apparently very good."

"Paige…"

"No, it's okay. I'm not sorry we helped the boy. I just want to find Sam _Welder_ now."

whwhwhwhwhwhw

Dean parked a few houses down and studied the neighbor. This was not the kind of place that had the crime and shady vibe. But Dean couldn't fathom why Sam would wonder off and not pick up his cell. The two brothers were used to one of them going out on their own sometimes. They weren't joined at the hip and they would probably kill each other if they had to spend every moment together.

But even when they were out getting air or doing a solo part of a job, they always answered their phone unless there was trouble. Or unless they were in bed with a chick. Those were the only two reasons, though.

Dean highly doubted that Sam picked up a chick as quickly as Dean could, so he went with reason one. And that's what led Dean to calling the phone company to turn on Sam's GPS. That led Dean driving to a very nice neighbor, led him to sitting in the car, staring at the house Sam was supposed to be in, and led him to wonder if he was going to run into a psycho Martha Stewart.

After five minutes, Dean finally decided that the pink house was not going to bite him and he had wasted too much time already when he had waited two hours for Sam's call. He got out of the car and shoved a gun in the back of his jeans, hiding it with his shirt. Instead of going in the front, he slipped through the side gate, making it look like he was supposed to be there if there were any neighbors spying on him.

The backyard did nothing to add to the idea that something shady was going on inside the house. It had tricycle and a wagon with plastic buckets in it pushed up against a wall along the side and the bushes and grass were all trimmed.

Dean, however, knew better than to judge on appearances in these cases and picked the backdoor's lock with practiced ease. He took his gun out and pointed to the ground as he slipped into the warm house. It was quiet and bright, with only natural light coming through the windows to illuminate the place. Aside from the children's toys that were scattered on coffee tables, chairs, and pushed into corners, the house was orderly and old fashion.

The first floor revealed nothing of Sam and a quick check of the basement had the same results. It was all just so innocent and normal looking; Dean was starting to wonder if he had broken into the wrong house.

Sam screamed at the top of his lungs, clearly in pain. Dean bolted back up to the first floor and ran up the stairs, following the screams that preceded the first. On the second floor, Dean skidded to a halt, took a breath and headed up the last set of stairs silently.

These stairs lead only to a closed attic door. Dean very carefully twisted the knob, thankful it was unlocked, and waited two heart beats to see if he had been detected.

"SAM!" Dean shouted as he threw open the door and rushed in, gun up and ready to harm anyone that moved.

He first saw candles on tall stands. They were circling his brother, who was on the ground, twisting and crying out in pain, while three women chanted from the side of circle, not paying attention to him.

He didn't see the other man in the room who introduced himself by tackling Dean to the ground. The gun flew out of Dean's hands and skidded across the room. The women stopped chanting for a second.

"Keep going!" the man shouted and the women, as one, returned to the spell they were casting.

"What are you doing?!" Dean shouted as he struggled against the man who was a few pounds heavier. "What are you doing to Sammy?!"

"Calm down!" the man on top grunted. Dean jabbed him in the side and the man had to get his grip on his wrist again while fighting off sharp pain in his side.

Dean's swears to the man were cut off by Sam, who screamed the loudest Dean had ever heard. Grey smoke seeped out of his stomach and snaked its way through the floorboards. It lasted only a minute, but when it was done, Sam laid on his back, unconscious.

The older Winchester finally shook the other man off of him and ran for Sam, picking up his gun along the way.

"Sam? Sam! Sammy, come on, wake up," Dean kneeled by his brother felt his pulse. It was there, if a little slow. Dean pointed his gun at the women as one of them started to step forward. "What did you do to my brother?! Tell me or I'll blow your brains out!"

"We _helped_ him," the shortest of the three said, looking offended. "You're welcomed."

Dean pointed the gun at the man at his side, to let him know that Dean could shoot the man faster than he could move.

"Look, we found your brother like that," another one said. "We had to help him. Look, he's not in pain anymore, is he?"

Dean's eyes flickered down to his brother again. Sam was drenched in sweat but he looked like he was having a very peaceful dream.

"What did you do to him?" Dean asked again, this time less angry and panicked.

"In short, we took out what was harming him," the shortest one said. "We don't want to hurt you or Sam. We only want to help. Could you put the gun away?"

Dean eyed the strangers again and put the gun down, but not away. Considering this a good enough compromise, the three set about cleaning up. One of the women went over to the man and asked if he was okay. He shrugged off the pain, though Dean caught the slight wince when he moved. The other two blew out the candles and started putting them against the wall.

"So, what are you? A bunch of witches?" Dean asked. "Is this a coven?"

"Please," the one over by the man rolled her eyes. "These are my sisters, Paige and Phoebe. This is my husband, Leo. I'm Piper."

Dean recognized the meaning of this information sharing. "I'm Dean."

"Sam's older brother?" Leo asked with a smile.

"Yeah. How did you know?"

"Lucky guess."

"Dean?"

Dean looked down and saw his brother looking up at him with half opened eyes.

"Sammy? Hey, how're you feeling?"

"Like I got ran over by a train, twice. But I'm okay now."

"What happened? You went to the alley on your own, didn't you?"

"Yeah. The ghost attacked me, put something in me."

"Put what in you?"

"I don't know, but it hurt like a bitch. Dean, they saved me," Sam let his head drop to one side, so he could look at the four who were wisely keeping their distance. "Thank you."

"No problem," Phoebe answered for all.

Sam struggled to get up, so Dean slung one arm over his shoulders and helped lift him up.

"Whoa, whoa, I really think you should rest, Sam," Piper said.

"I'm all right, really."

"We have some important work to take care of," Dean gave her a cocky smile. "Thanks for patching up my brother and all."

"You're going after the ghost, aren't you?" Leo asked. "After what it did to your brother?"

"_Because _it did that to my brother," Dean growled.

"Let us help," Paige offered.

"Heh, no thanks, Lady."

"Dean, they could help," Sam offered. "They're hunters, too."

"Hunters?" Phoebe asked. "We've never been hunting in our lives. Well, maybe Leo?"

Leo shook his head, considering the boys carefully. "Why would you think we were hunters?"

"You're too clean to be witches and how else would you know how to do that spell?"

"We _are_ witches," Piper said. This was very surreal. These two boys obviously knew about the magical side of life but they seemed to have a different definition. Since when was hygiene a factor in being a witch?

"Oh, even better," Dean sneered. "Come on, Sammy."

Dean and Sam started for the door, but Sam's legs suddenly gave out. The women all seemed to have the same idea, for they all reached out to help Sam at the same time. And they all touched Sam at the same time.

Above the five, a blue-white light appeared and shined down on them for a brief moment before disappearing.

"The hell?!" Dean jerked Sammy out of the women's grasps. "What did you do just do?"

"Did you see that?" Piper asked her sisters and husband, ignoring Dean and talking really fast. "Tell me you saw that!"

"Yeah, we did…" Paige said. "That's only happened once before. When you guys found me."

**End: Chapter One**


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Notes: Thank you, Cancer-Chris, for pointing out my mistake about Sam Wilder's last name. I had gotten his last name off of a fan site and Welder looked right, so I went with it. Thank you, Cancer-Chris, FirePony16 and BlackRain88, for the reviews! I feel warm inside.

Oh, if you readers are looking for some more Charmed/Supernatural crossovers, go check out BlackRain88 and her two latest fics: _The Power of Five_ and _Supernaturally Charmed_. She didn't put them under the crossover section for whatever reason, but they're great, nonetheless!

Disclaimer: Forgot to put this up with chapter one, but it applies for the whole fic. I don't own Charmed or Supernatural. But, oh, how I wish, how I wish…

**Chapter Two**

The sisters looked at each other in confusion and then looked at Dean, who was looking at Piper in confusion. His eyes weren't shifting from all of them, like before when he thought of them as a group of strangers. They were staying right on Piper.

"Do I . . . Do I know you?"

"Dean?" Sam asked. "What's going on?"

Dean shook his head. "Never mind, it's nothing. This is getting a little too crazy for my blood. Let's go."

"Wait! Wait, just wait a second," Phoebe waved her hands in excited nervousness. "You can't leave! Um, I mean you _can_, but – but you shouldn't! Sam really should rest and we really should find out what's going on."

"Sammy's fine!" Dean snapped. "Look, I'm not going to stay in the same room as you witches for a second longer! We're leaving and if you try to stop us, I'll blow you back to Oz!"

Dean readjusted Sam again and headed down the stairs. Or tried to. The narrow stairs and a near-unconscious little brother made it impossible for Dean to slip down them. He got to the first step and nearly tumbled forward from the imbalance.

A hand grabbed Dean's shoulder and prevented him from kissing the stairs. Looking back, he saw that it was Leo.

"You're going to hurt Sam if you insist on dragging him down three flights of stairs. Just give him a little time to rest, okay?"

Dean still wanted to get out of there as soon as possible but even he realized that the only way he was going to do that was if he ignored the concept of gravity. He nodded and with Leo's help, they got Sam sitting on the couch. Dean sat next to him and kept his gun on his lap.

"I'll go get some water for you guys," Paige offered and left before she could see if the boys really wanted water or not. Phoebe, Piper, and Leo went across the room and talked in a circle, in low tones.

"How're you holding up, Sam?" Dean asked.

"M'fine. Just really tired," Sam rubbed his eyes with one hand. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. If any of those freaks try anything, I'll take care of them."

"Dean, they _helped_ me. They had no idea who I was but they managed to get scare off the ghost and figure out how to remove whatever it was the ghost put in me."

"Doesn't mean they're good, Sammy!" Dean hissed back, suddenly not wanting the conversation to be over heard.

"They don't mean us any harm," Sam copied his brother's voice.

"How can you be so sure?" Sam looked at Dean and waited. "Because they could have killed us several times by now. Damnit! I still don't trust these people. They're hiding something. What was that blue light about?"

"I think they're just as clueless as we are."

On the other side of the room, Phoebe, Piper and Leo were having their own quiet little chat.

"What the hell is going here?!" Piper hissed. Yep, a quiet little chat.

"I don't know," Phoebe paused, glanced at the boys, and continued, "but you do think that they could be related to us?"

"No! That's impossible!"

"Maybe they're our cousins?"

"Yeah, cousins of who, Phoebe? Who?"

Phoebe cringed. "I don't know! But this wouldn't be the first surprise we've had about our family."

"What does that mean?"

"Oh, well, let's see here: We're magical, we had another sister out there . . . hey, what if that's it?"

"What?" Piper's eyes grew wide. "Phoebe, _no_. There is no way that's possible."

"Well, how else do you explain that blue light thing?"

"I don't know! There could be hundreds of reasons for that blue light things, right, Leo?"

Leo looked surprised at his wife. Sometimes he would forget for a moment that he once was a whitelighter, Elder and Avatar and even without his powers, he still held a lot of magical information. He cleared his throat and shuffled. "Um, you were all touching."

"What?"

"When the blue light appeared, you, Phoebe, and Paige were touching Sam, who was leaning against Dean."

"Just like when Paige got her witch powers," Phoebe added.

"No! No, that's just insane! I think, by now, _someone_ would have mentioned it!"

At that point, Paige came back with two bottles of water. The boys were on the couch, heatedly arguing with each other and her family was on the other side of the room, with Piper shaking her head almost like a toddler throwing a fit.

"Oh, yeah, totally not awkward at all," Paige muttered. She went over to the boys and pretended to not noticed that they stopped talking the moment she was close enough to hear them. She handed the bottles to Dean, who opened them both and passed one to Sam. "How're you feeling, Sam?"

"Better," Sam took a drink of the water and they could see the color return to his cheeks a little more. "Much better."

"Good, that's good. Um, I'm just going to see what they're up to," Paige pointed to her sisters and brother-in-law.

"Come on, Piper, who else would know more?" Phoebe asked.

"How are you so sure she knows anything at all?" Piper countered.

"Who will know what now?" Paige slipped into the conversation.

"Phoebe wants to summon Grams, see if she knows why the blue light happened," Leo said.

"Oh. Yeah, I second that." When Piper gave her a scolding look, Paige shrugged. "Look, we need answers and I say, the faster the better. Dean's only staying until Sam's able to move on his own. After that, they could fall of the face of the Earth."

"I just don't think it's a good idea to summon Grams while they're here. What if they freak out?"

"Well, I don't want them slipping out before we figure this out. Do you have a better idea?"

Piper opened her mouth but nothing came out.

"That's what I thought," Paige nodded. She turned around to the boys and said in her normal volume, "So, we think we have a way to figure out what's going on."

"What's your idea?" Sam asked.

"Well, we've seen that light before," Phoebe stepped away from her sisters, mostly to not look at Piper's angry face. "It's only happened once before, when we found our long-lost sister, Paige."

"You're not suggesting that we're related?" Sam raised an eyebrow while Dean snorted.

Phoebe, however, simply shrugged. "Maybe. Or maybe there's another reason. We don't know much about it but there's someone who might."

"So? Get him on the phone," Dean said as if he was stating the most obvious thing in the world.

"Her. You two are interested in calling her?"

Dean and Sam looked at each other before Dean said, "We don't want whatever that thing was biting us in the ass later. We want to know what it was and if it's dangerous."

Phoebe nodded. "Um, okay, yeah, that's a good reason, I guess. But there's a snag. We can't call her."

"E-mail?" Sam asked.

"No, she can't be reached by technology."

"Then how can she be reached? Carrier pigeon?" Dean asked.

"By summoning."

"What?"

"She's our grams and she's dead, obviously. We're going to summon her spirit. We just didn't want you to freak out." Phoebe eyed gun for a second. "I'm sure she'll sort this all out, so just sit tight, okay?"

"Summoning a ghost right in front of two dangerous strangers," Piper whispered harshly to Phoebe as she came back before the boys could protest. The area they were standing in was the cleared area where they had preformed the purification spell on Sam. Paige was already setting up the candles with Leo. "Guns and magic don't mix well, Pheebs."

"They might not be strangers," Phoebe pointed out.

"Hehehe, they still have a _gun_. I swear if Chris and Wyatt weren't at day care right now, I would have gotten rid of them long ago. Why haven't you orbed his gun away yet, Paige?"

"Honestly? He seems calmer with it…" Paige muttered as she lit the last candle.

Phoebe recited the spell from memory:

"Hear these words, hear my cry

Spirit from the other side

Come to me, I summon thee

Cross now the great divide"

"These are the cleanest witches I've ever seen," Dean muttered. Usually by now, there'd be at least one gutted animal, possibly some cuts on the witches themselves, and some old bones flung about. But here, they just lit a few candles and said a little poem. Dean and Sam both weren't expecting it to actually work.

But, right before their eyes, golden lights formed a column in the circle of candles and disappeared. Standing in its place was a transparent elderly woman with a slightly confused look on her face.

"Phoebe? Piper? Leo? Is everything all right? Are you all right?"

"Yeah, we fine, Grams," Phoebe smiled her way-too-big-to-be-real smile.

"Well, then what is it? I do have an after life to live, you know."

"We just wanted to ask you one _tiny little_ question," Phoebe looked over to the boys to see how they were taking this.

Grams followed Phoebe's eyes and suddenly shrieked and disappeared in a swirl of golden orbs. Her cry seemed to echo in the silent room.

"And we were the ones you didn't want to freak out?" Sam asked.

"What just happened?" Phoebe asked.

"I don't know but I think Grams has some explaining to do," Piper frowned.

"Hear these words, hear my cry

Spirit from the other side

Come to me, I summon the

Cross now the great divide"

No one showed up.

"Grams!" Piper called and recited the spell. "You can't hide from us forever!"

Piper said the spell one more time, practically shouting it. This time, another woman showed up. She had the light brown hair and a figure much like the three women who were in the room and alive.

"Piper? Is everything all right?"

"I don't know, Mom. What did Grams say?"

"Mom?" Patty asked. She pointed a thumb over her shoulder. "She just ran past me a moment ago. What's going on?"

Piper exhaled noisily. "Cliff note version: we all touched those two and that blue light thingy appeared and Grams freaked."

Patty looked over at the two boys. Dean had gotten up from the couch but hadn't moved closer. Patty stepped out of the circle and became solid. Both Dean and Patty were looking at each other like they were searching for something. The part of Sam that wasn't confused and worried noticed that Dean had the same look when he was trying to see the second imagine in those two-imagine pictures (like the one that's an old and young lady at the same time).

The dead woman walked until she was mere inches away from Dean's face.

"Do I know you?" she almost whispered.

"No…" Dean whispered back without conviction.

Patty gently cupped Dean's cheek and stared intently at him. Dean was surprised to find her touch was as warm and real as anyone living.

Then her eyes grew wide for a brief second before hardening. "MOTHER!" she shouted, turned on her heals and stormed back into the circle. "I swear, if you don't explain yourself right now I am going to find every single man you've ever jilted and…"

Her threat was cut off as she disappeared through the invisible door in the circle. Everyone looked at each other for a few seconds before Patty and her mother came back in a swirl of golden orbs.

"…until your ears bleed!"

"Okay, okay, all _right_!" Grams wrenched her arm out of Patty's grip. She seemed to be looking everywhere else beside her daughter and Dean and Sam.

"Mom," Patty commanded her attention. "When I touched that boy over there, I suddenly had a memory of holding him as a toddler. Now why would that be, Mom?"

Penny spread her hands and shook her head. "I don't know. Are you sure it was memory?"

"What else _could_ it be?"

"…Premonition?" she offered weakly.

"That's my power," Phoebe raised her hand.

"Well, I don't know! Maybe you were friends with his mother when he was little or something!"

"Which explains you running away," Dean said. "Something about this whole thing is _off_. And I want to know what it is."

"Mother, tell us what you know," Patty demanded.

Penny looked at her daughter with very sad eyes. "Please, Patty. Don't make me…"

Patty folded her arms. "Mom."

The older woman took a deep breath and finally said, "They are your sons."

"_What_?"

"She's not our mother," Sam stated matter-of-factly. "Our mother was Mary Winchester."

"Mary was your foster mom," Penny took a look over at the boys. Sam still sat on the couch, but he was leaning forward and ready to pounce if need be. "She loved you with all her heart and soul, but the one who gave birth to both of you was Patty."

"No, I didn't! I think I would _remember_ giving birth to _two boys_!"

"I erased everyone's memories and put them up for adoption."

"Grams, stop talking nonsense," Paige folded her arms, mimicking her mother's pose.

"Yeah. You would never do that," Phoebe laughed nervously. "Family is more important to you than anything."

"And that's why I had to do what I did," Penny stepped out of the circle and walked away from everyone. It wasn't that far, considering the attic room wasn't that big, but it gave Penny the room she needed to dig up her courage to tell the story. "Patty, after you and Sam gave up Paige, you two grew apart. It was understandable, really. Giving up a child like that was a very hard thing to do, even if it was for the right reasons."

"Yeah, and I got back together with Victor," Patty summed up quickly. That really wasn't one of her favorite times in her past.

"Yes, and you and Victor had two more children. Two boys," Penny finally turned around and gestured to Sam and Dean. Dean was about ready to say something, but Sam put a hand on his arm to quiet him. He wanted to hear the rest of the story. "But about a week after Patrick was born –"

"Who?" Leo asked.

"Sorry, I mean Sam. About a week after Sam was born, I found out about a prophecy. It told the lives of Peter – of Dean and Sam – and they were not pretty. They were filled with pain, too much pain for anyone to handle."

"Mom, what are you saying?"

"You and Victor didn't take it seriously enough!" Penny went into rant mode. "You two were _young_ and _in love_! You thought nothing could harm your happy family and you could handle whatever came your way. But you were _wrong_! The only way to protect those boys was to send them away!"

Patty openly gaped at her mother in shock. It was starting to come back to her, in little bits and flashes. She remembered arguing with her mother, remembered Victor holding his youngest baby and promising that nothing bad would ever happen to him.

"You took my babies away from me?" Patty whispered, her fists clenching.

"I had to! Please, don't look at me like that, Patty. It was the only way to protect them!"

"No, it wasn't. It was the only way _you_ saw. And of course, _you_ always know what's best, don't you, Mother?" the word was almost said like a curse. "It _has_ to be done your way, always your way, or else it's not done right, is it? How _could_ you?!"

"Patty, I know you're upset, but it was for their own good."

"You do not know what's good for them! You are not their mother!" Patty yelled.

Penny looked shaken and hurt, like someone had just physically punched her. "Well, I know when I'm not need…"

Her farewell was obviously meant to save face, but everyone could see how wounded she was as she left in the swirl of golden orbs.

An awkward silence filled the room. Everyone felt the need to say something but no one seemed to know what to say.

Sam finally stood up and put a hand on his brother's shoulder. Dean jumped and snapped his head over to Sam. Shaking his head clear, he said so only Sam could hear, "I don't know what their game is and I don't want to know. Let's just get the hell out of here, okay?"

Dean roughly grabbed Sam's arm, for once not letting him argue, and started pushing him out the room.

"Peter, wait!" Patty shouted.

"It's _Dean_. Dean Winchester. And this is Sam. Our parents were Mary and John Winchester and if any of you come near us again…" Dean pointed his gun and pretended to fire. It might've been a comical act if the dead serious look on his face had left room for humor.

Sam took one last look over his shoulder at the strange people but didn't protest leaving. With Dean holding onto his arm, he was able to get down the stairs fairly swiftly for his state and the two left through the front door.

"They're gone," Phoebe said from attic window as she saw the black, old style car drive away.

"Great. We have a psycho for a brother!" Piper huffed.

whwhwhwhwhwhw

The boys drove the city streets back to their hotel. For once, Dean was driving fairly safe and obeying the "it's okay to go five miles over the posted speed limit" rule Californians had. Dean didn't put on any of his cassette tapes and neither boy talked, just listened to the city rush by the rolled down windows. It wasn't until they were in their cheap hotel room that Dean decided the silence had gone on long enough.

He sat down on edge of his bed, facing Sam, and asked, "Do you believe them?"

"What?" Sam asked, not looking away from the ceiling. He was lying on his bed, feeling okay, if a little dizzy – but he honestly couldn't say if that was from the attack or the amount of information he just received.

"Come on, Sammy, you're being pretty quiet."

"You are, too."

"Yeah, but I look cool when I'm brooding," Dean cracked a smile. "You know what they said wasn't true."

"It's possible…"

"No, it's not possible. Look, maybe they had their wires crossed. Maybe they mistook us for somebody else. Maybe they're a bunch of nut jobs. Point is: we aren't related to them. Now, come on, we'll only have until tonight to figure out this ghost deal. I say we finish the job and blow this place before they come looking for us."

Dean changed out of his casual clothes and put on the cheaply rented suit. "I've got an idea on who this guy could be. I'm going to talk with that cop again, and get some files. You're going to be okay by yourself?"

"Yeah. Wait, why don't I go with you?" Sam asked and got off his bed.

Dean smiled at his little brother and pushed him. Sam fell back onto the bed without much resistance. "That's why. You're still recovering. Just relax and do some more research. I know you love your research."

"Jerk."

"Bitch. No going in that alley way again," Dean said right before he closed the door.

Sam sat on the bed for a little bit longer. He couldn't wrap his mind around this. Mary and John weren't his parents? There were sometimes, as a kid, he wished he had a different father, but he never meant it. If this was a plot by a magical creature, it was one of the most convoluted and retarded ideas the supernatural side has ever come up with. They were better off claiming that John had another kid out there – at least that one was more believable than an overly protective grandmother with some serious mojo backing her up.

Shaking his head, Sam dug out the rest of the snacks – a bag of chips, half of a pie slice, and a candy bar. Sam realized then that he hadn't eaten anything yet and it was ten in the morning. However, he didn't feel like going out at that moment, so he settled for the junk food and went about researching.

Hours past and Sam was able to forget about the strange happenings of that morning as he plunged into sifting through online newspaper reports for possible ghosts. It was easier this time around, sense Sam had a seen the ghost. Unfortunately, as the day passed, he was only able to add to the ever-growing "not him" pile.

Around two in the afternoon, a knock came at the door. Sam grabbed his gun and peaked through the peep hole. It was that guy the morning. Holding the gun against the door so he could look unarmed but still shoot through it if the man tried anything funny, Sam slowly opened the door, keeping the chain on even if it didn't do much when supernatural creatures were involved.

"Hi, um, don't think we've been introduced properly," the man smiled warm heartedly. "I'm Leo Wyatt, Piper's husband."

"Thought her last name was Halliwell."

"It is. She didn't change it when we got married. Can I come in?" When Sam didn't move, Leo held up his hands as if being arrested. "I'm not armed and I'm not here to try anything funny. I want to talk to you about the ghost."

"What about it?"

"I was wondering if you wanted my help."

"No."

Sam started to shut the door but Leo put a hand against it. "All right, truth is, I need your help. We need your help. Look, I know you're scared right now, I don't blame you. But that ghost that nearly got you today has already gotten Paige's father and at least one other guy. If what happened to you this morning is any hint to what it does to people it actually captures, then we need to find them as soon as possible."

Sam studied Leo. The man was very open and honest – or one of the best actors he had ever seen. The fact that finally got Sam to make a choice was not that he thought he could trust Leo but that the ghost had other victims. He closed the door, put the gun in the back of his jeans, took the chain off, and finally opened the door fully.

Leo stepped in and smiled awkwardly at Sam before taking in the room. It was an average-sized hotel room that had two queen beds spaced evenly with two feet of walking space on the sides of each one. Against the wall that was opposite of the one the beds were against had an out-dated, never-in-fashion dresser with a TV on it. There was a large window with its thick curtains pulled back but the flimsy under curtains closed over it and directly across from that, a small table at the edge of a tiny kitchen space. The room was decorated in muted colors that Leo suspected were more to hide stains that to make the place feel cozy.

The room looked almost as if the boys hadn't been their at all. There were a few wrappers in the waste basket, two duffle bags shoved against each bed, and a pile of folders and papers on the table next to a laptop, but those were all surface things, easily removable.

"Haven't been in town long, I take it?" Leo asked.

"No, just got in yesterday. We're not staying long, either," Sam answered from the kitchen with his back towards Leo. He got down two hotel coffee mugs from the cabinet and filled them tap water – adding holy water to one of them. Turning back around and acting like he was with a trust friend, Sam handed the holy water-laced mug to Leo.

Leo took the mug and sipped it. Sam was staring at him, so to break the tension, Leo asked, "What do you know about the ghost?"

"It's a middle-age guy, in clothes that I think are around the 1920s, so he's been around," Sam sat down at his lap top. "Every twenty years, for a few days, he seems to abduct men who end up in his alley way. His only preference seems to be that they're alone."

"Alone?"

"Yeah. When Dean and I went there before, the ghost didn't show. When I went alone, the ghost didn't waste any time."

Leo nodded. "Paige's father was helping out a – a friend of his, but the ghost had already appeared by he got there."

"And I'm guessing that third guy was alone, too."

"From what I've heard, yeah. What do you think this means?"

"Not sure. Could be nothing. Maybe he's just an opportunist who doesn't want his liar found," Sam looked up at Leo. "If I'm guessing right, this ghost is somehow inflicting pain but keeping his victims alive for twenty years."

**End: Chapter Two**

I know that Patty died sooner than I made her in the fic. However, I did the math and Patty actually died before the Winchester boys were born. If I wanted to make this fic work, I had to alter the time a little bit. I will explain all of the changes as the chapters go on.


	3. Chapter 3

Authors Note: Cancer-Chris, get out of my head! Yeah, I was going to have the Sisters' reactions last chapter, but it was already getting on in length and I felt like I needed some time to sort out what I really thought on how they should respond. Thank you both, BlackRain88 and Cancer-Chris for your suggestions. You guys helped me get through that part, which was tough.

By the way, I realized I made another mistake in chapter one. When I had Sam find the two pieces of paper, I had been playing around with which one I was going to have him read first and I got the description turned around a little. His letter from his sixth grade teacher was the younger one, while his father's note about missing people in San Fran was the older one. It's not that big of a deal, but the only way Sam's letter could've been older than his dad's notes was if Sam was in his thirties right now.

Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural or Charmed.

**Chapter Three**

"_They're gone," Phoebe said from attic window as she saw the black, old style car drive away._

"_Great. We have a psycho for a brother!" Piper huffed._

"Could be worse," Paige shrugged.

"_How_ could it be worse?" Piper spun around, glaring daggers at Paige. "Don't answer that."

Piper moved over to the couch and sat down with a thud, putting her head in her hands. "Look, we have brothers, _fine_, I can deal with that. But what I don't like is that one of them is psycho."

Phoebe cleared her throat, "Actually, he was just worried. He was confused and a little scared, but mostly just worried about Sam. I think he just didn't know how to react to the situation."

Piper lifted her head just enough for Phoebe to see her raised eyebrow and eyes. "Yeah, somehow, that doesn't make me feel better."

"Okay, so this is not the most ideal situation. But, be honest, Piper, when _has_ this family had an ideal situation?"

"There was a time," Patty growled. Her arms were still crossed and although she had moved from out of the circle, her expression of fury remained in place. No one needed her to elaborate to understand she was talking about before her mother had meddled.

"Yeah, how did you remember that?" Phoebe asked.

"Huh?"

"Well, Grams said she erased your memory, everyone's memories…"

Patty shook her head. "Erasing memories is a misleading term. You can't really erase memories, only burry them."

"That doesn't explain how you suddenly remembered him."

For this, Leo took up the slack, "When you die, most magic that you did or was done to you is undone. Cursed people return to their normal state, bound powers become unbound. Unless you did something to the soul or preformed certain spells meant to exceed death, the magic no longer works. But with memory spells, the effects continue after death until something triggers the memory."

"You just don't remember automatically?" Paige asked.

"Most of the time you do, but sometimes, if a memory spell was cast thoroughly enough, by someone with enough power… well, you can't remember what you don't remember," Leo finished cryptically.

"I can't believe Grams actually did something like that," Paige said with no malice in her voice. "I mean, I get how she wanted to protect them but if anything, I would've figured _she'd_ be one thinking she could stop any force."

Phoebe sighed. "It must've been hard for Grams, holding onto that secret all these years…"

"Don't sympathize your grandmother," Patty snapped. "That woman…"

"Mom?" Piper looked up out of her hands and seemed to snap out of her Retreat-From-The-World state. "Don't go crazy on us, please."

Patty took a deep breath, tried to speak calmly and took another breath. "I'm just – I'm so mad at her…I don't care what her intentions were, she had _no right_ to do that! I need strangle –"

"Mom," Piper warned.

"I need to punch –"

"_Mom_."

"Oh, what? She's a spirit, she won't feel it! For long."

"Mom, promise me you're not going to go all poltergeist on us."

Patty looked at her daughter and had a brief moment of clarity. Although she trusted her children to make good choices, she still saw them as her _children_, her babies. But Piper just demonstrated how mature she has become over the years. It takes a lot to look past your own personal hurt to help another.

Trying again with a deep breath, Patty felt her shoulders un-tense a little. It was a start. "All right, fine. No hurting your grandmother. I just need some time to think, I think." She looked around at her girls, a prideful smile on her face. "I love you all so much. Please, let me know what happens, okay?"

"We will," Paige nodded.

Patty nodded back and disappeared in a column of orbs.

"You think she really will just go off and think?" Phoebe asked.

"I hope so. The last thing this family needs is a feud between its dead relatives," Piper frowned.

"So, what are we going to do about Dean and Sam?"

Piper looked questioning at her younger sister. "I don't know, Pheebs. Find them and get our brains blown out?"

"I don't think he meant it like –"

"Oh, he meant it. I've seen demons with more humor than him."

"How about we find Sam?" Paige spoke up. They looked at her and she continued, "My dad, Sam, not our brother, Sam. You know, the guy who's _missing_ and in possible pain?"

"She's right," Piper got off of the couch. "We can deal with psycho brothers later."

So they refocused their efforts on the search for Sam. Unfortunately, in the new day's light, nothing presented itself as a clue. They spent hours scrying and searching the Book while Paige did her best to search with her link with Sam and even tried to combine that with Coop's love-seeking powers.

Around noon, Piper and Leo had to run off to magic school to get their boys from day care. Wyatt was only three and Chris was two, so they stayed at day care a few times during the week, for the morning – not including the numerous times they had to be left there for longer periods of time when demons were attacking. This gave Piper the time to keep her club and house in order (as well as spending a little adult time with Leo) without having to worry about her boys.

As the day went on, Piper had gone to wake up her napping boys and get a break from the attic. Paige and Coop had been standing in the same spot for so long she was afraid they would become statues (which wouldn't be a first for Paige). Leo was intent on the Book and had made sure the boys had their lunch that Piper didn't offer that he go with her.

"I'm sorry, Paige," Coop finally let go of his future sister-in-law's shoulder.

"Don't stop, I almost felt something!" Paige complained, trying to hide her wince by frowning.

"Yeah, a headache, which will develop into a migraine, which will develop into something _worse_ if you don't stop pushing yourself like this. We've been at this for hours. Even I don't usually search that long without a break."

Paige glared at Phoebe's love but couldn't deny the throbbing above her left eye. "_Fine_. We'll take a ten minute break."

Paige descended down the stairs, and Leo suddenly sprang to life. He slipped over to the table filled with maps and started messing them up. Phoebe, who had been in charge of this department, huffed in frustration as San Francisco was pushed off the table.

"Leo, I was using that!"

"Sorry. Where is it?" Leo muttered.

"Where is what?" Coop asked, joining his fiancé in bafflement.

"That scrap of paper with Sam Winchester's name on it."

"Why do you . . . Wait, you want to scry for Sam Winchester?"

"Not me. Phoebe."

"Why would _I_ want to scry for Sam Winchester?" Phoebe asked. She had been putting the whole long-lost brother issue on the back burner of her mind and really hadn't made up her mind about them, even if Dean didn't really want to blow their brains out.

"Because we need their help," Leo answered as he lifted up a map of Southern California and found the tiny scrap of brittle paper. "Aha!"

"Leo, you're not making much sense," Coop warned.

Leo looked up at Coop with big, surprised eyes, as if he had really thought they were keeping up. "Sam and Dean are going after the ghost. They obviously have experience with –"

"Getting attacked once doesn't count as experience," Phoebe pointed out.

"_Pervious_ experience. They've had pervious experience with this kind of thing. You saw how they reacted. They didn't even blink at the idea of chasing the ghost down."

"You think they're in a position to help?" Coop asked. "I thought they hadn't become witches until today."

"No, but I think they're hunters."

"Hunters?" Phoebe asked. "Wait, Sam used that word, too, but he wasn't talking about killing deer . . . Leo, you know he meant, don't you?"

Leo shifted and looked for a minute, embarrassed to be caught. "Kind of. When I was a whitelighter, there was a rumor about mortals who would fight magical creatures. No one seemed able to find them and the few who claimed to have crossed paths with them couldn't tell much other than they're secretive, distrusting, and paranoid."

"A lovely combination," Coop said wistfully.

"You think Dean and Sam are secretive, distrusting, paranoid mortals who are fighting magical creatures? Leo, you realize how that sounds." Leo looked at Phoebe with a raised eyebrow. "Well, it does!"

"Okay, yes, it sounds strange, but what else is new? Look, we're just spinning our wheels here. Every hour that goes by is another hour Sam is stuck with a ghost who has the ability to inflict pain just by _touching you_. We need help."

Phoebe studied Leo and finally sighed and grabbed the paper in his hand. Coop retrieved the map of San Francisco and returned it to the table. In less than a minute, the crystal dropped.

"Thanks, Phoebe," Leo said as he committed the address to memory. "Keep looking in the Book."

"You're going alone?!"

"Yeah, I think that's the safest," Leo said over his shoulder as he reached the door. He was out of the room before Phoebe could think up a reply.

"The safest? He's kidding, right?"

"Oh, I don't know, I think he has a good point," Coop hugged Phoebe from behind and rested his head against hers. "They might talk to him if he's alone."

"Or they might shoot him."

"You don't believe that. Do you?"

"I don't know. Piper seems to think they're dangerous, Paige seems to be avoiding the topic – with a good reason to avoid, but she hasn't said a word about them sense this morning and she pretends to not hear me when I mention them. Piper's almost the same, only she tells me that she doesn't want to talk about them."

"And you? What do you think of this?"

Phoebe remained silent for a good while, lost in thought. Finally, she said, "They've got their own problems and they're scared, but I don't think they'd hurt anyone unless that person proved to be a threat."

Coop smiled into Phoebe's hair and whispered, "That's my girl."

Their little moment was broken by Piper, who came in ranting about Leo and OCD-ness when it came to paying bills on time and his lack of interest in paying bills online.

whwhwhwhwhwhw

Sam and Leo poured over theories and missing person reports and death articles. At one point, Sam had gotten up and Leo felt something cold on the back of his neck. Sam pretended to have tripped when the silver didn't burn the other man's flesh.

"I don't think there's going to be any newspaper articles on the internet that go as far back as we need," Leo comment about a half hour into their research.

"I know. That's why I'm looking at historical and strange history websites. It's a long shot, but hopefully Dean will find something to narrow down the search."

"Where is your brother, anyway?"

"Researching."

"Ah, okay." Leo clearly didn't want to accept that answer, but he wasn't willing to push the issue just yet. Instead, he commented on the files that he had been looking over. "Most of these look like police reports."

"That's because they are."

"How did you get them?"

"I have my ways," Sam smirked slightly. When he saw Leo staring at him, waiting for a better answer, he said, "They're a matter of public record."

Leo could feel the unspoken "most" in the air but once again, he didn't push the issue. They lapsed into silence again as Leo read over the files, looking for missing people that fit their needs and if there had been any follow ups, maybe a survivor.

"What kind of witch doesn't kill a bunny?"

"What?" Leo nearly fell out of his chair at the sudden, strange question.

Sam was staring at his screen, trying to pretend to not be all that interested in the question. However, he went on, "Every witch I've ever come across, they gut animals, use bones, cut themselves."

Leo nodded, finally understanding. "That's a different kind of witch. Those witches get their powers from demons or other evil sources. They're usually normal people who stumbled onto some bad magic and give their souls away without realizing it.

"The sisters aren't like that – you and Dean aren't like that. Your powers come from your blood, passed down through generations. You guys work on different kind of magic – good magic."

Sam softly snorted.

"You don't believe you're related to the Halliwells."

"I'm not so sure there's a thing called good magic out there."

"There is. You've seen it. It healed you this morning."

Sam was about to make another snide remark when his phone rang in his pocket. He fished it out and saw that it was Dean's number.

"Dean, where've you been?"

"Oh, just being useful," Dean's voice was filled with smug self-satisfaction.

"You've found a clue?"

"Oh, I've found something better. I've found out who our ghost is."

"What?" Sam had to crack a smile at the good news, although he was still doubtful.

"Michael R. McKillip, dude lived back in the turn of the century. He was kidnapped when he was twenty years old and forced to endure massive amounts of torture. The guy who got him was a sick, sick, _sick_ bastard."

"How did you find him? Are you sure it's our guy?" Sam motioned for Leo to be quiet as it seemed that Leo was about to ask his own questions. Not only did Sam want to hear what his brother had to say, he had a feeling Dean would fly off the handle if he knew about Leo.

"Oh, he's our guy, all right. And I found his diary at the state university's library."

"How did you know to look there?"

Dean was quiet for a moment before finally saying, "Bovine Woman."

Sam had to smile at this one. Bovine Woman was the name Dean had given the rather large female partner of the cop they were pulling their FBI routine on. She had short, home-perm brown hair, shoulders broad as a quarter back, thigh and upper arm muscles that bulged under her uniform, and two chin hairs that Dean seemed to be memorized by. And she was very outspoken on her attraction to a certain young FBI agent, much to the annoyance of her partner and the humor of Sam. "You went out on a date with her, didn't you?"

"Hey! It's not like I enjoyed it. She seemed to get a good idea on what I was looking for and would only tell me where I would find it if I took her to lunch. I'll tell you, Sammy, I'm never going to look at steak the same way again."

"So, Michael?"

"Right. This McKillip guy went off the deep end after he was let go."

"The psycho let him go?"

"Yeah, with a threat to find him in, get this, twenty years."

"Hence the twenty-year cycle."

"Gotta love the predictable ghosts."

"So, how'd die?"

"He oft himself a day before his torturer was due to show. He doesn't write in his journal –"

"His journal?"

Dean sighed and said crossly, "Yes, Sammy, that's what I'm reading, his journal. Stay with me. His journal doesn't say which method he was going to use for certain, but he favored a gun to his gut."

"His gut? Why not his head or heart?"

"Because that's where he felt the most pain. Or fear. He switches those two words around so much; I don't think he saw the difference. Like I said, the guy was off his rocker. His journal is mostly a bunch of rants about needing to become stronger and what was done to him, but he has some bits about this neighborhood boy that he tried to torture." Dean took a breath. "Killed the boy when he started to cry for his mom. He was convinced that if he learned to become the torturer…"

"He could face the man who tortured him," Sam finished. "So in his afterlife, he figured out how to inflict pain and fear on his victims. Does his journal tell you where he lived?"

"His home has been destroyed, about ten years after his death to make way for a new business section – five miles away from his hunting ground. And there's no mention any other place he might've been connected to."

"What about the man that tortured him in the first place?"

"McKillip never knew his name nor did he remember the way back to place that he was released from."

"Fuck," Sam sighed. They were so close! They needed to find the victims of McKillip. Sam's eyes flickered over to Leo and a realization, then an idea, dawned on him. "You know where he's buried?"

"Yeah," Dean answered.

"Good. We'll get rid of the ghost first."

"Oh, shit."

"What?"

Sam heard static, then Dean cry out in pain, and then silence.

"…Dean? Dean? Dean!" Sam jumped up.

"What happened?" Leo stood up with him, afraid of the younger man's panicked look.

"The ghost got Dean!"

**End: Chapter Three**

Okay, so it's a little shorter than my other two, but honestly, how could I _not_ end it here?! And I'm sorry if it seems like I suddenly dropped the whole Dean-Found-The-Answer thing in your laps, but I really didn't want to write the scene with Officer Bonita, a.k.a. Bovine Woman. Most likely, I'm never going to write about her again and Sam pretty much summed her up. Maybe later I'll write Dean's horrible date as an extra at a later date…


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note: Cancer-Chris, thank you so much for your reviews and input. I wish you would log in or have some other way to contact you other than through the Author's Notes. Piper is madder than I've shown her but she hasn't had much "screen time," so it hasn't come across that much yet.

Thank you, everyone, for your reviews!

Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural or Charmed.

**Chapter Four**

Sam's head felt light and he remembered he had to take a breath. His rational side pointed out that this kind of thing has happened before, and he really should be use to it by now, but the rest of him over road that little fact with fear and worry. Sam's stomach was a pit of cold metal, his legs were itching to move, and his hand would be twitching nervously if he didn't grip the car door. He could feel the tension build in his jaw and shoulders and would have to remind himself to relax.

Not being very subtle, Sam's nerves seemed to radiate out from him and onto Leo, who was driving a little more reckless than he usually did. Several people had been cut off and more than a few times Leo sped through an intersection when he should have slowed down as the light changed. It was times like this that he missed the ability to orb. Or to rewind time. That was a cool power.

Neither had spoken sense the hotel room, where a very quick exchange happened. Sam needed to get to the place where the ghost took Dean, in hopes that there was some vital clue and to get to his car. Leo, not understanding why the car was so important, offered him a ride. They hopped into Leo's vintage truck and Sam was surprised to find out that the truck did more than putt-putt-putt down a country lane (where it looked like it should be). However, sense then, Leo was unsure on what he should say. Any words of encouragement would seem hollow coming from him – same with reassuring Sam that Dean would be all right. He didn't know Dean, after all, so anything along the lines of "he's a tough guy, he'll get through this," would be as effective as giving Sam a Hallmark card.

So Leo concentrated on driving and watching out for speed traps. Although the ride wasn't that long, it felt like hours with air thick with anxiety and stress. The truck hadn't even come to a complete stop and Sam was unbuckled and jumping out of it.

"Hey!" Sam ran up to a passing woman and stopped her. "The library, where is it?"

Surprised by the suddenness of Sam, the lady pointed down the walkway between two buildings. Sam made a noise that he hoped sounded like "thanks," but his mind and body were already rushing ahead.

The library was the second building to Sam's left and it took all of his strength to slow down to a fast walk when he entered the air-conditioned, student-filled lobby. A quick check at the front desk revealed that librarians felt that students should look up resources on their own before they asked for assistance from a human. This led to Leo, who had just caught up to Sam, finding out that the boy could issue a thinly-veiled threat that chilled the harden librarian's blood.

In the corner of the basement of the library, where old odd and ends ended up in a catch-all section, Sam and Leo found a table with the journal of Michael R. McKillip, opened to the last few pages, where Dean had been citing his information from. There were also a few copies of city plans from around McKillip's time, before and after his death. There had been some lines and circles drawn, like Dean had been forming a search area.

Sam ducked under the table and found Dean's phone, still open. Their phones were rarely the latest model and that was mostly because they would get smashed or dropped or the boys would have to ditch the number to keep off the radar. There were a very few rare times when they got lost or damaged without the help of the supernatural world. Only when Sam was away at school did he actually hold onto a phone long enough to renew the contract.

Sam and Leo went over Dean's findings and quickly realized what Sam dreaded.

"I can't find anything that could tell us where he is," Sam sighed in frustration.

"I think it's time we called the girls," Leo said. "They have experience that can help and if we combined our efforts…"

Sam looked at Leo, suddenly remembering something. "How did you find me?"

Leo's gaze shifted for a moment, as if he could see around the shelves of books. He lowered his voice to answer. "I had Phoebe scry for you."

"Could she do it for Dean?"

Leo shook his head. "They've been trying, but the ghost's lair is most likely magically hidden."

"Great. Just great," Sam sighed heavily. He looked down at the research on the table. They could do this, they could figure it out. This ghost might be unique, but it was still a ghost. They were so close, but not close enough. Knowing that Dean would probably kill him, Sam decided that he'd rather have his brother alive and able to kill him than the other option. "Call them. Call the Halliwells."

Leo took out his own cell phone and speed dialed the most called numbered on his phone.

"Leo, where are you?" Piper asked. "You've been gone for hours."

"I know, Honey, I'm sorry. Listen, Michael took another."

"Wait, what? Who's Michael?"

"The ghost –"

"How did you find out who the ghost is? What have you been doing?"

"I don't have time to explain and you don't have time to get mad. Cliff note's version: Sam, Dean and I have been working on figuring out who the ghost is. The ghost got Dean and we need to –"

"You need to better explain yourself," Piper growled. "How could you go behind my back?"

"Because I knew you would react like this. Piper, please, you can yell at me all you want when this is over but right now, we need to focus on finding the ghost."

Piper was silent for a moment before she growled, "You are in so much trouble."

Leo returned the phone to his pocket after Piper hung up.

"Trouble?" Sam asked.

Leo shrugged. "We've been through worse. It'll be fine."

"Yeah, that's why you waited until now to offer calling them," Sam noted.

However, Leo didn't respond as a shower of blue lights formed from the other side of the table. Sam jumped up, ready for anything, but Leo stuck out his hand to show that he shouldn't be afraid. The blue orbs disappeared and in their place stood Piper, Phoebe, and Paige.

"Where're the boys?" Leo asked.

"With Coop," Phoebe answered. She took a step towards the table. "So, what'd you got?"

Leo and Sam imparted as quickly as they could who the ghost was and what happened to Dean.

"So now all we have to do is find where he is," Paige summed up. She shifted the map so she could see it better. "It looks like Dean was already starting on that."

"Yeah, but the problem is the search area is too wide. We don't have the time to cover it all."

"I don't think we need to. I think his liar is his hunting ground."

"What? The alley? I haven't noticed three missing guys hanging out there, have you?"

"No, but what about _under_ it?"

"You mean in the sewers?"

"Or an old basement or something. He can't just drag kidnapped people through the streets, can he?"

"Then why did he grab Dean here?" Piper asked.

"Because of this," Sam held up the journal. "Dean was alone and touching something the ghost is obviously connected to."

"How did Michael mange to drag Dean to his liar, anyway?" Phoebe asked. "You think he has some kind of teleportation?"

"I think anything's possible with this ghost," Leo frowned. "It's rare to find a ghost this old. As a general rule, the longer you stay as a ghost, the more powerful you get."

"So this guy's Super Ghost," Piper quipped.

"We need to go to the alley again," Sam said.

"Oh, where you were attacked? Yeah, that sounds perfectly logical."

"He won't attack me this time. I was alone. And unprepared."

Sam looked up and caught Paige's eyes. The two had the same look in their eyes and they reached a silent understanding. While everyone else might be worried about the kidnapped, Sam and Paige had family stuck with the sadistic ghost. Now wasn't the time for over analyzing and planning.

"Leo, I think you should go back to the house, be with your boys," Paige said, finally breaking the moment.

Leo nodded, understanding that without powers, he'd most likely get in the way when they faced the ghost.

"Wait, we're going? Right now?" Phoebe asked. "We don't really have a plan or anything…"

"Find his liar, save everyone, and then deal with the ghost," Sam said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. He was already cleaning up Dean's work and slipping the journal into his jacket.

"You want to go in half-cocked? Do you realize how stupid that is?" Piper asked.

"We've done it enough times," Paige pointed out. She and Sam started walking off down the isle. "Look, we're going and if you don't want us to get killed, you'll just have to come along."

"I hate it when she pulls that on us," Piper growled as she and Phoebe followed them.

whwhwhwhwhwhw

The first thing Dean could feel was the stale, cold air on the back of his throat. He thought he had fallen asleep with his mouth open again, but then he tasted the metallic sting of blood on the air and knew that no matter how crummy the hotels he stayed in at were, they never had _Ode Blood_ air fresheners. But they did sometimes smell like old sewers every now and then.

Cracking open his eyes very slightly, Dean saw that he was indeed in an old sewer tunnel. The lights were amazingly still on, providing a dim contrast between the shadows. The place was purely made of grey concrete with wires, lamps and a few metal bars running along the ceiling. Dean saw that he was close to what looked like a half wall collapse, with a hole big enough for a grown man to squeeze through.

Shifting his head to see down the other end of the tunnel, Dean really wished he hadn't let his curiosity get the better of him. The slight movement seemed to wake up his body, which screamed in pain at him. Gritting his teeth against it, he continued to move his head until he could see down the dimly lit tunnel. It was pretty long, maybe fifty feet. About two-thirds of the way down there was someone slumped against the wall and the furthest down, almost in the shadows of the dead end, could have been another body or just rocks in shadows, Dean couldn't be sure.

As Dean geared himself to fight against the pain and check on the other prisoners of this make-shift jail, the ghost of Michael R. McKillip walked through the hole as if he had an actual need to.

"Ah, my new play thing is awake," McKillip's voice was high pitched for a guy. "I was hoping I didn't hurt you too much. Yet."

"Give me a break," Dean rolled his eyes. "You couldn't even hurt a little boy."

"That was before I had some practice," McKillip chuckled. He kneeled before Dean. "You know, I was surprised to find my journal was still around. No one had touched for decades, I thought it had been destroyed or lost."

"Do I get a finder's feed?"

McKillip smiled at him, a thin stretch of the lips that held no humor, and he plunged his hand into Dean's gut. Dean screamed for a short moment and tried to regain control again by suppressing his screams.

Removing his hand, Dean still felt the pain there, just at a lower level.

"You think you're the first tough guy I've had? I like them better than the others. They last longer."

"Do your worse, Bad Boy," Dean smirked and blew the ghost a kiss.

The ghost plunged his hand back in and threw waves of pain through Dean, who convulsed and moaned but refused to screamed.

"This is just the beginning," the ghost hissed. "I know so many tricks, so many ways to make you scream. I'm going to have fun breaking you down. Maybe you'll be even more fun than that one I lost earlier today. He looks a bit like you. Once I find him again, I'll have enough play things to last me for a good while."

"You leave Sammy alone!" Dean shouted and it rang on the walls.

Behind the ghost, the wall was suddenly burst into flames, as if someone had thrown a small bomb on it. McKillip whipped his head around and was able to watch the quickly disappearing fire. His eyes, wide with fear, were suddenly back on Dean.

"How did you do that!?" McKillip asked.

"I didn't –" Dean's protest was cut off as McKillip plunged his hand back into Dean's stomach and sent pain racing through his bones like there was a thin lead pipe snaking its way through his marrow. Dean let out what he secretly hoped was a manly cry of pain. He also hoped that his pants were clean.

Dean heard a loud gun shot and the lead snake was gone, leaving behind only the liquid pain that was sending convulsions through his body.

"Dean?"

The voice sounded like it was at the other end of the tunnel, talking through a tin can, but there was a hand on his shoulder. Dean struggled against the wave of dizziness and forced his eyes opened.

"Hey, Sammy," Dean croaked out, his own voice fighting to sound strong and sure. "I was just about to kick that ghost's ass."

Sam managed a half-smile down at his brother before he looked down the rest of the large sewer tunnel. Paige was over by a middle age man, who Sam could only assume was her father, slumped up against the wall. Phoebe was checking the pulse of boy younger than Sam. By her relieved look, Sam could tell the boy was alive.

Piper stood next to Sam, gripping so tightly onto the shot gun, Sam was almost afraid that she'd snap the gun in half.

"Sam, you want to take the gun back now?" Piper asked, scanning the place as she did.

"No, I need you to keep the ghost busy while I chant," he said, bringing out a small, leather-bound and beaten up book.

"I hope you realize that I've never fired a gun. What if I kill someone?"

Sam flipped through the book and muttered quickly, "Don't worry. The rock salt will only bruise someone. Blind them if you get them in the eye."

"Oh, yeah, that's _much_ better."

Sam found the chant he was looking for and wasted no more breath trying to comfort Piper. As Sam entered the second line of the chant, McKillip reappeared a few steps away from the Winchesters, in between them and Paige and her father.

"My, my, what have we hear?"

Piper shot the gun and the rock salt bullet flew right past the ghost and struck the wall a foot above Sam Wilder's head.

"Piper!" Paige scolded as she did her best to heal her father. She was hoping that if she couldn't heal him completely, she could get him awake and useful.

McKillip acted like none of the girls were there and went on talking. "I've never had anyone escape me and come back."

"Oh, screw this!" Piper dropped the gun and blasted the ghost. Her aim was much better and the ghost was scattered just as quickly. "Paige, how's it going, Honey?"

"Can't seem to get it down past a certain point," Paige huffed out, not daring to stop healing Sam and repeat what happened to the other Sam this morning.

The ghost reappeared again. Glaring straight at Piper, he pointed a finger and shouted, "YOU!"

Piper blew him up again.

As Sam continued to chant, Dean fought down the next wave of pain that shuddered his body and Phoebe tried to wake up the unconscious boy. As Piper waited for McKillip to show up again, Paige finally got her father to open his eyes.

"Paige…" he breathed the word more than spoke it.

"Don't worry, I'll have you healed soon."

"You're wasting . . . your time."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are. Help . . . the others."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"I'm your father."

"Doesn't mean you get to tell me what to do."

"Jamal."

"Who's Jamal?"

"Behind you. . . Justin's friend. He needs more healing than me . . ."

"Yeah, and Dean needs help, too. Two whitelighters are better than one."

"You're not going to heal –"

Sam's whispers were interrupted by Piper blowing up the ghost again.

"– I've tried…" Sam put his hand limply on his daughter's, but she quickly knocked it away and continued healing him.

"Look, would you just stop the noble sacrifice bit and let me heal you?!"

At that moment, the ghost finally got smart and appeared behind Piper. With a flick of his hand, he sent her into the wall opposite of Dean and Sam, knocking her unconscious.

"That twit sure was annoying."

"Piper!" Phoebe called and started to run over to her fallen sister, but stopped in mid-crouch. She had caught the eye of McKillip and knew by his stare that she'd be next if she went to help.

But at that moment, Sam finished chanting.

A cold wind blew through the tunnel; the lights flickered and buzzed, and out of the shadows came a voice as harsh as a nail being driven through a skull.

"My, my. What have we hear? Good old Michael. I have missed you."

"Y-y-you…" McKillip took a step back.

Taking it as an invitation, the ghost materialized in front of McKillip. His skin was chalky white, exaggerating his large black eyes and thin lips that curled themselves into a big grin, revealing his yellowing teeth. His hair was thin, brown, greasy and to his shoulders. Hands too big for his thin frame ended arms that were too long for his meager height of five feet. His dark colored clothes were smeared and crusted in blood as if he had washed them in it.

McKillip stood a full five inches taller than his torturer but the look on his face said that he felt no bigger than a small child in the presences of this evil.

"I've waited for you," the torturer reached out and cupped the chin of the visibly shaking McKillip. He leaned in close, letting his breath slide across McKillip's ear. "My reason for living, even after my body. My unfinished business. I'm going to take you away and enjoy your screams."

McKillip's lips moved but no sound came.

"Don't lose your voice. You know how much I love your voice, twisted in pain."

"No."

It was probably the thinnest whisper, but it ended all other sounds.

McKillip stepped back again, his knees nearly buckling. Tears of fear were in his eyes and he kept grabbing at his shirt as if it clung too tightly him.

"I'm…" He licked his lips and tried again. "I'm not going anywhere with you. You're not going to do anything to me anymore."

The torturer's smile grew wider. "Are you going to stop me?"

"I've been waiting for this day."

"You can barely stand."

"Doesn't mean I can't fight."

McKillip threw his hands up and sent the torturer flew back across the tunnel but somehow landed on his feet. His scowl was scarier than his grin but McKillip didn't back down. Instead, he hit his torturer with another blast and another. The other man was more prepared for the blasts and held against them, but couldn't help being shoved closer and closer towards Phoebe.

"S-Sam…" Dean moaned, weakly gripping his brother's hand. His back arched in pain and he vision went black before returning in a blurry form.

"Dean!" Sam snapped his eyes from the scene before him. He pulled Dean into his arms and noticed the blood dripping from his nose. "Stay with me, Dean!"

McKillip shoved his torturer back twice as far as the shove before. Sam Wilder's brow creased in pain and the bruise Paige had been slowly shrinking started to fight against her healing powers.

Phoebe stayed as still as she could, hoping not to gain the attention of the ghosts, and watched in horror as blood slowly trickled out of Jamal's mouth and nose. The only signs that this boy was alive were his shallow pulse and even shallower breaths. His deep brown skin was ashen and sweaty, causing his oversized t-shirt and jeans to stick to his back and legs.

_This was Sam's plan?!_ Phoebe couldn't help but thinking.

"Enough of this!" the torturer shouted. He swiped his arm in front of him and though the humans couldn't see anything, he didn't get pushed back anymore and McKillip looked startled.

Without another word, the torturer dashed for McKillip. But McKillip seemed through with whimpering and ran to meet the torturer head on, screaming like a warrior on the battlefield. The two smashed into each other in the middle of the tunnel, with the torturer slamming McKillip to the ground. As they fought for dominance and the lights flickered and crackled, the air got colder. McKillip kicked his torturer in the stomach and the torturer only managed hang onto McKillip's wrist, although he ended up under the other man. Dean and Sam Wilder's cries of pain were cut off as they coughed up blood.

Under Phoebe's hand, the innocent was getting colder. Looking down for a second, Phoebe saw a slight shimmer appear around Jamal's and suddenly there was a translucent form of the boy rising out his back. The spirit of Jamal looked around, very confused and scared.

"What's going on?" he asked Phoebe. "Am I dead?"

Phoebe jumped up and dug her hands into her pockets. "Um, yeah, I think you are."

"WHAT?!"

"Don't worry! We can fix it!"

"Fix me being dead? Do you have a ghost wrench in those pants or something?"

"Kind of," Phoebe finally produced a scrap of paper. Turning it so he can see the words, Phoebe ordered, "Read this!"

The boy looked at her like she was nuts.

"Why don't you read it?"

"Do you want to get out of this alive or not? Just read it!"

The boy looked at the paper.

"Out loud!"

"Ashes to ashes, spirit to spirit

Take his soul, banish this evil."

Both grappling ghosts stopped dead in their movements, the torturer just about to punch McKillip, and their heads snapped back to Phoebe and her ghost. For the first time, their faces mirrored each other perfectly – horror and realization – just before their spirits exploded.

Phoebe ran over to Paige and literally yanked her away from her father, who she was trying to wake up.

"Sam's fine, heal him now!"

Finally seeing the other ghost in the room, Paige realized what was happening. She felt drain and ready to sleep, but fought against it to heal the boy. It took a few minutes, and for the first minute, Phoebe was unsure Paige could save him, as Jamal's spirit floated further and further away from his body. But then Jamal's spirit, once it was close enough to his body, seemed to plunge back into it and Jamal gave a trembling gasp. Although he didn't open his eyes, his pulse and breath were steady and his skin was no longer a sickly color.

Paige sighed and looked over down the rest of the tunnel. Her father had somehow managed to get up and heal Piper, who was now berating him for doing so. Slumped against the wall, Sam Wilder didn't look like he had the energy to keep his eyes open, let alone argue with the eldest Halliwell. Sam held Dean in his arms with a very worried and concerned look.

Paige sadly recognized that kind of look. He felt like he was alone, like he couldn't rely on others for help. Or maybe he didn't realize that they could help, he was so focused on his brother.

_Our brother_, Paige reminded herself silently. That was going to take some getting used to. It was a big enough shock when she found she had two sisters (and one diseased sister), but now her family has almost doubled in size.

Leaving Phoebe to watch over Jamal, the young whitelighter witch went over to Sam and Dean and sat down in front of them. Dean had coughed up a lot of blood and was shivering, desperately trying to keep his unfocused eyes opened. Sam looked ready to panic.

"We have to get him to a hos –"

"Just watch," Paige said as she put her hands over Dean.

When the golden light came, Sam recognized it from the morning (which felt like a life time ago), but was unsure it was going to be helpful. After all, when she did it on him, it only made the pain come back even worse.

Dean gasped as his lungs urged him to take a full breath and the next thing Sam knew, Dean was out of his arms and sitting up on his own, using the wall for support.

"Where's the fucker?" Dean asked a little loudly.

"Jamal banished him," Phoebe said. "There's a spell to banish spirits, but it has to be spoken by another ghost."

"And you just happened to have it on you?" Piper asked.

Phoebe shrugged. "Back at the house, I realized we had no idea what was going to happen, so we should be prepared for anything."

"Is Jamal dead?" Sam asked.

"No, he's fine," Paige smiled. "Exhausted, but fine."

whwhwhwhwhwhw

Despite the fact the Paige was tired from her extended use of her newly found healing powers, she still managed to orb everyone out of the sewer. She was sure that Dean and Sam would have preferred to be orbed to their hotel room, but Paige had other plans and sent them back to the Halliwell manor along with her sisters. After she had completely healed her father, he insisted on taking Jamal to his sister's place. He had gotten to know Grace as he and Justin pretended Sam was a college recruiter interested in keeping Justin on the right track. Justin had been debating if he should tell Grace his big secret or not. Now that the choice was made for him, Sam knew he was probably going to need some help explaining the magical side of his life. With hope, Grace will live up to her name and take it in stride, even though that hope was small after her brother had been captured and tortured by a ghost.

In the front room of the Halliwell manor, a restless silence fell over the five siblings that was broken by Leo coming down the stairs with Chris in his arms and Wyatt doing his best to match his father's strides. Once he saw his mother, however, Wyatt ran over to her and was promptly picked up by Piper.

"Hey, there, Wyatt! Did you have fun with Uncle Coup and your daddy?"

"Yeah! I missed you," Wyatt hugged his mom before his aunts asked for their hugs. As he – and soon enough, Chris – was getting showered with affection by his two aunts, Piper said her hello to Leo. She was no longer angry with Leo for his actions that afternoon, but chided him a little for going behind her back like that.

"Coup's waiting for you at home," Leo told Phoebe and then looked to Paige, "and Henry's been calling for you."

Paige slightly cringed. "Oh, I should have called him…"

"Don't worry, I explained the situation. He just wants to know you're all right as soon as possible."

The silence returned and almost took hold again, but Piper decided this was going to be awkward enough. So she picked up her toddler and, with Phoebe holding Chris, said, "Boys, these are your uncles. This is Uncle Dean and Uncle Sam."

Chris gave a small wave to the boys. Dean a tight, unsure smile, while Sam's was bigger but no less nervous.

Wyatt looked at the two new guys and for a moment, seemed to comprehend the situation better than any four year old should be capable of doing. But the moment passed when he turned back to his mom and asked, "Are they new uncles?"

"Um, kind of. Hey, why don't you three guys go fix something up for dinner and I'll be there in a few minutes, okay?"

"Okay!" Wyatt wiggled out of his mother's grip. Once Chris was out of Paige's hands, Wyatt led him and his father to the kitchen, where the wondrous food was.

"So," Piper said, hoping to keep ahead of the silence. "I know it's hard to swallow, but honestly, this family is anything but uncomplicated –"

"Look, we're not even sure if we believe that we are related to you," Dean pointed out.

"Grams would never make something up like that," Phoebe said. "There's no reason for it. She's not the kind of person who likes to mess with people. And you saw Mom. She remembers holding you two when you guys were babies."

"Dean, I don't think they're lying," Sam said, glancing at his brother. He could tell that Dean was starting to believe them, too, but was holding back out of his love for John and Mary.

"We don't expect you guys to be okay with this right now," Paige said, "or even believe us. But if this turns out to be true, we don't want to lose our brothers again. Could you guys stick around at least until we get proof one way or another?"

Dean licked his lips, thinking. Finally, he said, "I can't just accept this."

"What about a DNA test?" Sam asked.

"Sam, we don't have that kind of time," Dean said, thinking of how long it takes police to get DNA results. And what kind of cover story would they make-up?

"No, there are home ones."

"What? Home DNA tests?"

"Yeah. Private companies sell a kit, you send your samples to them, and in a few days, you get the results. They're usually used for seeing if you're really the parent, but they can tell if we're siblings or not."

"How do you . . .? You _are_ an encyclopedia of weird."

"That sounds fair, really," Paige said. "Um, how about I orb you guys to your car, we'll go pick up a kit, and send it off tomorrow? We should know for sure by the end of the week if you guys are our brothers or not."

Dean looked at Sam and seeing his eagerness to do it, sighed. "Fine, all right. We'll do the test. But I swear we're leaving Wackoville behind the moment the results come back negative."

"Well, that's an improvement over threatening to killing us this morning," Piper noted.

"Yeah, well…" Dean stuck his hands in his pockets and look away, seeming very uncomfortable.

Sam gave a small smirked. "What Dean's trying to say is thank you for your help today."

"Right back at ya," Paige smiled. "Okay, we need to get going. I'd like to get back to Henry before he goes too crazy with worry."

With two hugs from her sisters, Paige orbed the boy out of the room.

"Whew, what a day, huh?" Phoebe asked.

"Yeah. Finding out we have brothers and saving them from a psycho ghost."

"Well, we promised Mom we'd keep her updated. How about I summon her and Grams while you have dinner with your boys?"

"Don't summon Grams."

"What?" Phoebe asked, taken back by the edge in Piper's voice.

Piper looked her sister in the eyes and said, "Don't call Grams. I do not want that woman in my house."

"But, without her, we wouldn't have known Sam and Dean were our brothers."

"Without her and her high-and-mighty, meddling ways, we wouldn't have to have known Dean and Sam are our brothers, we would have already known all our lives. Now we don't have two brothers, we have two strangers who have oblivious been through so much crap in their lives that they'd rather think we're evil or nuts instead of trusting us! I don't care what her reasons were, Dean and Sam could have stayed with Mom and Dad and they should have."

"So, what? You're just never going to speak to her, ever again?"

"That's the plan, yeah."

"I don't think you can do that."

"Of course I can! She's already dead. People don't normally converse with their dead relatives."

"Normal people, maybe, but normal people don't go off banishing ghosts and vanquishing demons! Come on, Piper, Grams raised us since we were little. Be mad at her, fine, but don't write her out of your life forever."

Piper shook her head. "That woman crossed a line that should have never been crossed."

Phoebe sighed as she watched Piper march off to the kitchen before she climbed to the attic and summoned her mother.

whwhwhwhwhwhw

For the week, Sam and Dean had been on a little bit of a vacation. Despite Dean always talking about going on a vacation and having a great time, they didn't have much fun. Although Dean did enjoy telling Bovine Woman that he was leaving town and would never, ever, ever, _ever_ call her, his joy was short lived, as later that afternoon, Dean set the coffee maker on fire.

Sam called Leo first because they were unsure how or if they were going to tell Bobby about their possible new family and powers. Hunters hunt witches, after all. Leo reassured them Dean wasn't possessed or under a spell or was sick in anyway, and then told them something that Dean wasn't too sure was any better. Sense the brothers were magically recognized as witches now, they get their powers.

"You're a fire starter, Dean," Leo informed. "They're a rare kind of witch. They used to be hunted as kids by a demon who wanted to harness their powers. But the sisters vanquished him years ago."

"Whoopee," Dean twirled a finger in the air.

Leo didn't acknowledge his snide remark and went on. "Your powers are connected to your emotions. If you get too angry or panicked, you might accidentally set something on fire, like the coffee maker."

"He started it!" Dean thumbed to Sam, who huffed and wisely decided not to point out that it was Dean who made the typical "lots of gays in San Francisco" joke that started the argument.

"Your powers are going to take some getting used to, and they will be unpredictable at first, so you've got to be careful."

Sam's brow wrinkled in confusion. "Wait, witches – good witches, I mean – have natural powers that manifest when they're 'magically recognized?'"

"Well, it's a little more complicated than that, but in your cases, that's what happened." Sam still looked confused, so Leo asked, "Why do you ask?"

"Well, it's just . . . sometimes, I get dreams, visions. Sometimes, they come true."

"Premonitions? Phoebe gets those, too. You're saying you got them before you came to San Francisco?"

"Yeah, for over a year now."

"Huh." Now Leo looked confused but shrugged. "Magic can work mysteriously. It's certainly broken the rules before. In any case, I think both of you should have some training sessions with the sisters, especially you, Dean. They can help you guys get your powers under control."

Dean didn't seem happy about it, but he realized that he needed to at least learn how to control the power. He promised to call one of the sisters soon and set up some training time. Of course, he put it off and the next day, Sam made the call. That afternoon and everyone after, at least one of the girls would meet up them and have them do simple exercises to help control their powers. Sam more or else got to touch a bunch of random things to provoke premonitions, but that was steadily going nowhere. When Dean resisted attempts to get in touch with his emotions, (or to become a sissy boy, as he put it), they had to find ways to talk about emotions that didn't make Dean sneer right away – a task that tested both imagination and patients.

Later on in the week, Dean finally confided in Sam why he had been so opposed to this hunt in the first place. Their father had actually come close to getting the ghost twenty years back, when John was still pretty new to the whole hunting scene. Dean had wanted to go hunting with his father, so he followed him to the alley way and was nearly taken by the ghost. Their father had packed up and left San Francisco that night, after giving Dean a major tongue lashing for going against his orders.

"He made me promise to never go after that ghost, too," Dean finished.

"But you hunted it anyway," Sam said.

"Yeah, well, someone had to keep you out of trouble. Besides, I'm not Dad's blind little soldier."

Sam smiled softly and went back to his web surfing. Dean had been staying in the hotel room a lot and it showed. When they finally left, the cleaning ladies will be very puzzled as to why many things have been singed, chard, burnt, and melted in a few cases. While Sam was not in danger of destroying property, he didn't go out much either, opting to keep his brother company. This, however, lead to a lot of TV watching and internet surfing while bumming on their beds.

A tiny ping and an icon in the corner of the screen told Sam he had an e-mail.

"Dean. It's the results of the DNA test."

"Yeah, and?"

Sam handed the laptop over to Dean. Dean read the e-mail, then closed the laptop with a huff. "Damnit."

"It's not like this is a shock. I mean, with you burning everything…"

"I know, I know," Dean rubbed his eyes. He opened the laptop up again and read the e-mail once more. There it was, in black and white. They were related to Piper, Phoebe, and Paige. "Well, fuck. Like our lives weren't screw up enough as it was."

**End: Chapter Four**

Author's Note: I've only found home DNA testing kits to test parental connections, but I'm figuring if they can check to see if you're the parent of a kid, then surely they can tell if two or more people are siblings. If this isn't the case . . . well, too bad. This is a crossover fanfiction. I get a few liberties. =P


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note: After some debate between Cancer Chris, BlackRain88, and a few of the voices in my head, I've decided to change the Supernatural plot line. Don't get me wrong, it's an awesome plot – especially season five, ooh, I love it – but I don't really have the desire to rehash it. And from where I've started, I'd have to write three seasons worth of plot. No thank you. I'm going to be taking all of the stuff that's happened so far in the Supernatural plot and then putting my own explanation to them.

Oh! I've also decided when this takes place in season two. Kind of late, I know, but hey, I didn't even have a fully developed plot back in chapter one. It's going to happen right after Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things. Now, I know this makes a couple of continuity issues, so I'll address them here. First off, Sam's broken hand. In Dead Things, Sam says he thinks zombie-bitch broke his hand. Since they didn't get it checked out in this episode, I'm going to say that his hand wasn't broken, just tweaked, thus no mention of it in my fic.

Secondly, the weather. I made it fall/winter for my fic but I'm guessing it's more spring/summer in Dead Things. I'm going with a time jump, to also explain why they're in the Nevada desert when this starts.

Like I said before, I'm taking everything so far and putting my own twist on it. That means any characters or plot points that show up after Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things will probably not make it into this fic.

Apologies for the long A/N.

Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural or Charmed.

**Chapter Five**

"Look, whether you like it or not, they are our family!"

"That's not the point, Sam!"

"Dean!" Sam took a breath and calmed his voice. "It's hard to deal with, especially after all that we've been through –"

Sam couldn't finish the sentence as a fire ball hit him and exploded. The impact knocked him on his back; he couldn't figure out if he was more stunned by the physical attack or that his brother did such a thing or that his brother was _capable_ of such a thing. Before that, all Dean could muster up was fire no more intense than a cigarette lighter.

Dean rushed to his brother's side and kneeled down. "Sam? Sammy!"

Sam blinked and regained his senses, only to realize that the pain was really there. He cringed but didn't yell at Dean. One look at Dean's horror stricken face was enough for Sam to realize that it was an accident. That and Sam was finding it a little hard to take a full breath.

"Sammy, are you all right?!" Dean asked as he cut the shirt off of his brother to get a good look at the burn. Sam's upper chest was completely blistered, red and shiny like it had been wetted. This meant it was only a second degree burn. Not as bad as a third degree, but still very bad, considering the size of it. "Oh, crap, Sammy, I didn't mean it!"

Sam took a shaky breath. "Call . . . Paige . . ."

Dean took out his cell phone and got Paige on the second ring.

"Hey, Dean, is everything all right?"

"No, Sam's hurt."

"What?! How!?"

Dean hesitated, not really wanting to tell her, but Sam was sweating and his eyes started to roll back. His hand blindly grasped for Dean's as his already shaky breath got shorter. Now was not the time for pride. He grabbed Sam's hand and held it tight. "I accidently burned him. Just get over here and heal him! He's going into shock!"

Paige didn't even hang up, just materialized out of a column of blue orbs that appeared out of thin air. She dropped her cell phone and kneeled by Sam. Placing her hands over his chest, but not touching him, a familiar golden light came forth and healed him.

Sam gasped at the sudden ability to breathe without pain. He pushed himself up into a sitting position, with Dean putting a hand on his back. It was completely unneeded but Dean couldn't help himself.

"You okay, Sam?" Paige asked.

Sam nodded. Only his shirt was in bad condition now.

Paige looked at Dean. "That's the most powerful fire you've made so far. What happened?"

"I was teasing him," Sam lied smoothly.

"Teasing?" Paige raised an eyebrow.

"Never make fun of a man's ride," Dean answered, thankful that his brother didn't go all girly on him and pull Paige into their argument.

Paige was clearly not satisfied with this answer, but Sam distracted her by getting up and offering her some water and making idle chit-chat. Paige left soon and Sam decided now would be a good time to get some fresh air.

"Sam," Dean said as his little brother changed his shirt.

"Don't worry, Dean. It was an accident," Sam smiled at him, sincerely meaning it. The argument had been coming for a week, ever since the DNA results came back and the issue wasn't resolved. Usually, Sam would be doing his best to get Dean to open up and talk about it but, honestly, Sam wasn't ready to have second degree burns again. "I'm going to get us some dinner. We haven't had Chinese since we got here."

Sam left before Dean could really think of a good thing to say. In the charred, scorched, smelly motel room, the older Winchester stood and looked at his "progress." All he'd done so far was burn everything. They had to hide their clothes under the beds and Sam wouldn't bring his laptop into the room.

This whole thing sucked! Sure, their lives weren't normal and happy in the first place, but at least he could understand what was happening! Or figure it out. This stupid power that's supposedly connected to his _feelings_, like a bad young adult novel, just didn't make sense. Did they really expect him to believe that all he had to do was think happy thoughts and he'd be like the Human Torch?

The image of Sam lying on the floor, shuddering in pain, suddenly flashed through his mind and guilt and realization came to him at once. He had been pissed off – not just at Sam but at everything. Right before the fire hit Sam, Dean had been thinking that if his brother was closer, he would've slugged him.

Dean slumped onto his bed as it sank in. He never once thought about setting Sam on fire. That fight didn't even warrant serious injury. Maybe a swollen lip, at most. But Dean really didn't have control over his power – it was amazing that he hadn't torched the whole building yet.

Sighing dramatically, Dean flopped backwards. He knew what he had to do but he didn't like it.

Tuesday was a better day than its predecessor – at least for Sam. Sam didn't get burned, for starters. Dean appeared to finally be making progress after a week of blackening the room (an improvement over the original design, really). He was actually burning the piece of paper Piper held up, not the ones in the pile next to her, and taking her advice on when to calm his breathing.

When Dean exercised control and burned things on purpose, his flames were still pretty weak, but as the days marched on into another week, they steadily increased in power. It got to the point to where Dean felt confident enough to move into a slightly better hotel that was closer to the Halliwells. They had only stayed in where they had for so long because Dean was able to burn everything and no one bothered them. The only regret Dean had about leaving that room was that he wouldn't be able to see the look on the maid's face when she came to clean.

whwhwhwhwhwhw

"Sam, hey!" Phoebe smiled and waved him into her office. Sam had been standing out there, hesitantly talking to her latest office temp. The temp looked put-out when Sam gave a sigh of relief and went into the office as quickly as he could.

"Hey, Phoebe, thanks for meeting me," Sam said as he closed the door.

The advice columnist made a face. "I sound like your therapist or broker when you say that."

Sam sheepishly smiled and said, "Sorry."

Phoebe shrugged it off. "Have a seat. I'm just finishing up some things here."

Sam sat on the couch and waited patiently for his sister to be finished. He almost smiled as the word "sister" rang in his head. In the first few days since Dean and Sam had confirmed their heritage, Sam was in just as much shock as Dean was. True, they had known about the possibility of it all but it's like knowing you could get into law school or have cancer (depending on whose perspective it is). You can prepare all you want but it isn't until you hear the worlds confirming your fate that it really hits home.

For this reason and many others, Sam didn't jump up and down for joy and run off to get his name changed to Halliwell. It took him a good seventy-two hours to finally decide that he wanted to know his sisters as more than just magical coaches. But Dean was clearly not coping with the fact that he wasn't John and Mary's boy. He seemed to have a revelation after their latest fight and now worked with less resistance towards the sisters. However, Sam was sure Dean wasn't over anything.

"All right, let's go!" Phoebe snapped Sam out of his thoughts.

She drove them to one of her favorite hole-in-the-wall cafés, sticking out on the corner of one of the older, smaller streets of the city. For all of the charm and character these old streets had, they had equal opposite amount of parking spaces. She didn't even try looking for a spot on the street with the café and went straight for a parking lot two streets over. Parking here cost almost as much as her lunch was going to, but Phoebe wasn't going to let a little thing like money stand in the way of her day with Sam. This was the first time he had asked for a hang-out lunch like this. No couching, no lessons – nothing but a nice lunch and chat. She had a feeling that magic was going to come up (it was the major thing they had in common at the moment), but maybe Sam might actually open up more and tell her some of his life before landing in San Francisco.

But despite both of their hopes for a normal sibling outing, neither of them really knew how to start the conversation. As they walked to the café, they tried small talk and found each topic – weather, the nice conditions of the streets, the menu of the café – ended almost as soon as they began. For all the time the two spent together working on magic, neither one had really had a conversation with the other.

Phoebe was opening her mouth to try another vein of conversation when Sam winced hard. Confused, she didn't say anything at first. Then Sam stopped walking and in haled sharply, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Sam, are you all right?"

"Yeah…I'm–" his reassurances were cut short by a sigh of pain. Sam felt his knees buckle on him and braced himself against the wall as he slid down to concrete.

Phoebe held onto Sam but found she didn't have the upper strength to keep the taller one on his feet and sank down with him. Sam was staring straight ahead, rigid and breathing hard, and while Phoebe was worried for him, she was sadly reminded that this wasn't the most pain he had seen him in.

After an impossibly long minute, Sam relaxed and took deep breaths. He closed his eyes and rubbed them but the pain was leaving.

"What happened? Are you all right?" she echoed.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just had . . . a vision."

"A vision?" Phoebe's eyebrows shot straight up. "Your visions hurt like that all the time?"

Sam gave a shaky smile, attempting to look up at Phoebe. Instead, he looked past her and gasped. "That's her!"

"Who?"

"The woman from my vision!"

Phoebe looked over her shoulder and saw a light-brown hair woman in a business suit walking down the other side of the street, talking on her cell phone, digging in her purse, and paying the rest of the world no heed.

Sam tried to get up but the pain lingered and didn't let him rise. "Stop her, Phoebe. We have to warn her."

"Of what?"

The woman was turning the corner and was soon out of sight.

"Just stop her!" Sam pushed Phoebe up. "I'll be there in a minute!"

Phoebe didn't want to leave Sam but as one psychic to another, she understood that sometimes you couldn't explain things. Phoebe dashed across the street and rounded the corner. The woman had gotten into her car already and was driving off.

"Wait! Wait, Ma'am!" Phoebe called and waved her hands. The woman didn't even glance in her mirrors as she slipped out of the parallel parking spot and zipped away.

Sam was by her side before she could even turn around.

"You didn't stop her?!"

"I didn't have a chance," Phoebe saw the panic in his eyes. "Sam, what was your vision about?"

"That woman – she's going to die when she gets home. I saw her running down the hallway, a baby in her hands, she reached the end, turned around and screamed for whatever was chasing her to leave them alone."

"Were the lights on?"

"What?" Sam creased his brow.

"The lights in the house. Did you notice if they were on or not?"

Sam thought for a moment. "They were on . . ."

"Then this attack will probably happen at night and it clearly hasn't happen yet because she looks fine."

"We don't know who she is or where she lives. I didn't see out any windows and I didn't recognize her house!"

"Four-three-eight, M," Phoebe said. When Sam looked at her confused, she went on, "The license plate had the numbers four, three and eight. There was an M in there as well. I'll call up Paige's husband and he can track the license number."

Sam looked uncomfortable at the idea. "What does Paige's husband do?"

Phoebe was already pulling out her cell and pressing in the speed dial. "Parole officer. Don't worry, he's accepted magic." She missed the twitch that jerked the corner of Sam's mouth as she turned away for a second to make the call. She gave the information and then emphasized something that Sam found a little odd, but couldn't quite put his finger on.

Spinning back around, Phoebe pocketed her phone. "Henry's looking up the plate number now and then Paige's going to go check it out."

"Paige? Why not –?"

"Because Paige is already there and she's got a free afternoon," Phoebe smiled as if say it was no big deal.

"Paige is at the – where her husband works?"

"Yeah," Phoebe's eyes shifted and her smile got wider. "She likes to have lunch with him."

_You're not a very good liar, Phoebe_, Sam thought. But Phoebe was already taking his arm and steering him back to her car, asking how he felt.

Just as Sam uttered that he was fine, a car went by on the street, catching the light and flashing in his eyes. This caused Sam to wince and wonder if the world enjoyed torturing him. Phoebe held onto his arm until he was seated in the car and on the drive back to hotel, she kept glancing over at Sam.

A block away from the much nicer hotel than their previous one, Phoebe pulled into an underground parking structure, went to the far end where no one had parked, and found a spot in between the lamps. It was muted light, muted noise, muted colors, and the most beautiful thing for Sam's headache.

"What're we doing here?"

"Having lunch," Phoebe chirped, taking off her seat belt and shifting in her seat to better face him. "Well, lunch without the lunch. I was thinking about going through a drive through, but you don't look like you can stomach much of anything at the moment."

Sam gave her a smile. "I don't look that bad, do I?"

"Eh, I've seen worse. So, your visions, do they always hurt like that?"

"No…This is the first time I've gotten them while I'm awake."

"Right, they usually come as dreams."

"I don't get it. Why now?"

"Your powers are advancing, I think," Phoebe smiled reassuringly. When Sam stared at her, she continued, "Don't act so surprised, it happens in this family! Especially when you use them a lot. Piper, for instance, couldn't blow things up right away. She could only freeze time at first and then it was suddenly like, 'Whoa! Put down the hands and back away!'"

"Have your powers advanced?"

"Well, not my premonitions, really. But I started right away having them as visions, when I was awake. However, over the years, I've also gotten levitation and have become an empath."

Sam nodded a little. "Your visions never hurt you, huh?"

"They hurt a little, at first. Made me dizzy," Phoebe wracked her brain for more examples of pain. "Oh! One time I was psychically linked with a ghost who got shot and I took on his wounds. Nearly died from it."

Sam huffed a little, looking at her excited smile. "You say that like it's a good thing?"

His sister looked at him for a moment. "Well, no. I mean, okay, the gunshot wound in the gut isn't my _favorite_ memory, but I was able to help someone who couldn't get help any other way . . . And, I thought we were bonding."

"The gunshot victim and you?"

"No. You and me."

Sam crinkled his brow. "Bonding? Over pain?"

"Over our shared powers," Phoebe looked down and played a little with her nails. "We just . . . we haven't had much chance to talk, brother to sister."

Sam's foggy state cleared up in that instance. It was true. For all the time they've known each other, their relationship was taken from weird stranger to estranged family to magical coach. Things had simply moved too fast from ghost to Dean's fire powers and they hadn't had a chance to calm down. But now that Dean was getting better at controlling his powers, Sam felt comfortable enough leaving him alone for an hour or two without worrying.

And then Sam had a small revelation. He had been the one asking for the lunch, the one who was trying to reach out, and now he was putting all of the work on Phoebe.

Sam sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "How do you do it?"

"Do what?" Phoebe looked back up and was surprised to see Sam trying to conceal amazement and desperation on his face.

"How do you do _this_? Dealing with the supernatural world, with life, husbands, friends, jobs – how do you maintain a normal life and still fight demons?"

"We do our best. I mean, it wasn't always like this. We've had to sacrifice a lot for the Greater Good, and to keep our powers a secret. It does get better, Sam. Trust me. You will be able to find the girl of your dreams, get your dream job. You'll be able to do all of that. It might not come in the form you originally thought it would, but it will come."

Sam almost told Phoebe about Jessica right then and there. But then that'd mean talking about the demon and more about his past than he wanted to. His sisters might accept that he's magical – for obvious reasons – but he was unsure that they'd be okay with the rest of it. And, family or not, Jessica wasn't the easiest subject for him to talk about.

So they sat there for the rest of the hour, talking about anything that came to mind. Phoebe found Sam still to be guarded, but he listened to everything she said and at the end, she felt like they had shared more than they had since they found each other.

At the end of the hour, Phoebe drove Sam the last block to the hotel and promised that she'd call him the moment they knew something if he promised to go in his room and get some sleep.

Unfortunately, sleep for him wasn't an option. The moment Sam stepped into the hotel room, the moment Dean saw Sam, he knew something was up.

"What's got your bra all bunched up?"

"Ha-ha, I'm a girl, classy Dean."

"Oooh, do I detect a hint of bunched up panties as well?"

Sam ignored Dean's smirk and sank onto his bed. Dean was at the table, cleaning his guns which hadn't gotten dirty or used since the last time he cleaned them, but one could only watch day time television for so long before wanting to kill something. He was starting to go stir crazy –

A small, sharp intake of breath from Sam snapped Dean out of his brooding.

"Sam? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, Dean," Sam's voice sounded irritated and most would pass that off as Sam being annoyed at Dean's hyper vigilance. But Dean knew Sam as well as Sam knew Dean and that made lying a little bit tricky between the two.

Dean went over to Sam and kneeled down to get a look at Sam's face. There was a tinge of pain on it but it was passing even as he noticed it.

"Sammy, what happened?"

Sam sighed. "I had a vision."

"A vision? What, did you see the Virgin Mary in your salad?"

Sam rolled his eyes and relayed everything that had happened. "Phoebe thinks my powers are expanding."

Dean, for his credit, didn't interrupt Sam, though he did stand up. "So you had a vision and you didn't think about telling me?"

"I just told you."

"Yeah, an _hour_ after the fact!"

Sam looked up, surprised to see Dean this angry. With a huff he spread his hands. "I don't see the problem."

"Sam, if something like this happens, you tell me right away! What if something had happened?"

"You're _worried_? You could blow up the whole building and you're worried about a vision?"

Dean couldn't think of a response, so he turned around and stormed over to his guns, but didn't go back to cleaning them, just stood next to them.

"Look, Phoebe said once Paige found where she lives, she'd call us. I'm sure Henry's already got a list of potential people."

"Yeah, there's another thing I don't like. One of our sisters being ma – why're you looking at me like that?"

Sam, surprised, had sat up straighter and raised his eyebrows. "You just said 'one of our sisters.' You've never called them that before."

"Sure I have."

"Not seriously."

Dean looked around for a moment. "Yeah, well, I still don't like one of them being married to a cop."

"Parole officer."

"A _cop_. In case you've forgotten, we're not exactly in their good graces right now."

"Paige said he's accepted the magical side of life. I'm sure if we explain –"

Dean smirked and gave his own huff. "Yeah, _that'll_ go over well. 'No, officer, we don't actually kill anyone. We just salt and burn their _corpses_.'"

Sam shook his head, not really wanting to have this argument at the moment. His headache was still there, a steady throb that was slowly dying. Slipping more on to the bed, Sam sighed, "Whatever, Man."

As Sam lied down, Dean sat back down at his gun and went back to cleaning them, pretending he wasn't glancing over at Sam every few seconds. An hour pass and Sam managed to flip over in his sleep, his feet dangling off of the bed, and was just starting to snore when his phone rang.

He fumbled in his pocket and didn't lift his head off of the bed as he sleepily greeted, "Hello?"

"Sam, it's Paige. I think I found the woman."

**End: Chapter Five**


End file.
